The referee at the centre of the controversial penalty decision at Anfield in favour of Chelsea in Sunday’s premiership fixture between the Liverpool and Chelsea has been penalised for his incompetence. Rob Styles will miss next weeks premiership fixtures because of his mistake, which is a light punishment in my opinion, he should be fined and banned for the season for such a serious screw up. What happens if at the end of the season, Chelsea win the premiership over Liverpool by just one or two points and that fateful decision robs the Reds of the title. I know that it’s a long way off yet, but its a perfectly feasible scenario come next May. If I was Rafael Benitez I would be fuming asking questions of the PGMOL to fine and ban Styles from refereeing at the top level. It’s blatantly bad decisions like this that cost teams championships and/or cup competitions, and it needs to stop. English football needs a fourth official that monitors the TV feeds and has the power to override blatantly wrong decisions like what transpired on Sunday at Anfield. There was also the incident where Styles appears to hand Michael Essien a second yellow card in the very same game, although Styles has said he forgot to put his card away and waved play on with the card still in his hand, which made it look like he had cautioned Essien for the second time. That is of course possible, but it’s still a mistake non-the-less, but there is definitely no argument about the dodgy penalty decision, for which Styles and the PGMOL has apologised to Rafa Benitez and Liverpool for! You have to say that in the duration of the season more decisions go for Chelsea than against them, read into that what you will?
Plymouth have signed former C.S. Sedan Ardennes midfielder, Frenchman Nadjim Abdou until the end of the season to strengthen the midfield and defence and is hoping to play him on the wing to open up the flank channels. Personally I have never heard of the guy before and looking at his stats, he doesn’t seem to be a great signing, but I would hope Ian Holloway would know more about his potential than me. I assume he’s going to fill a Paul Wotton type role until the Plymouth midfield ace is back from injury. Plymouth really do miss a Wotton-esque player in the middle of the park, will Abdou be that man? I guess only time will tell; but one thing is for sure, Ollie needs to tighten up the midfield and defence!
England’s cricketers kick off the one day series with India today at Hampshire’s Rose Bowl with the aim of putting their dismal test match series behind them. Both England and India have had poor recent one day international form, so both will be looking to take the series to boost their one day world rankings. England have included Andrew Flintoff in the starting XI in his first match since the world cup earlier in the year, let’s hope that he is back on form with the bat as his recent performances have been poor at best. I question Ian Bell and Alistair Cook’s inclusion in the team, in my opinion, both players aren’t really suited to the one day international game, we need players that can knock up runs quickly, being 10 not out after 15 overs is not good for building a big total. A better choice would have been Michael Vaughan who can be hit or miss sometimes but when he’s on form can knock up 50 runs very quickly. As much as I admire Monty Panesar as a player I don’t think he is one day international material either, he is amazing as a test player, but I think his effectiveness in limited overs matches is questionable at international level! I would love to see all the players mentioned about prove me wrong, but I won’t be holding my breath on that!