S5M7: You wouldn't like me when I'm angry

Let's get to it. I've tried to keep this blog relatively neutral over the years, albeit with the occasional slip up, like a certain Captain, Leader, Legend, best-mates-wife-..... yeah, in Moscow...

However, this is my party and I'll rant if I want you, so...if you'll indulge me (otherwise, skip to the stats bit).

Diego Costa is a bit of a bottom. I've toned that down since Saturday lunchtime. Time's a wodnerful healer. How someone gets through 81 minutes without being called for a foul with his style of play is beyond me? Actually, it's not, but I'll come to that later.

How he doesn't get carded for any of the following offences, I don't know:

• 3rd minute - trips himself up, blames Coquelin, asks the ref for a yellow card. Unsporting conduct right there  - yellow. In fairness, I hate the faux-moralising over this, I find it not different to appealing for a throw/corner that you know isn't yours....but thems the rules.
• 41st minute - 2 hands clawing at Koscielny's face over right shoulder - yellow. Followed up with an intentional swing of his left arm over his left shoulder, connecting with Koscielny's face  - straight red -violent conduct. Followed up by a chest-bump/shove to Koscielny knocking him to the ground. Certainly a yellow, arguably a red too. All of which was unprovoked and amazingly unnoticed.
• 41st minute - Some afters with Gabriel who's come back to stick up for his mate. A load of handbags frankly. The worst bit I saw was Zouma (I think) grabbing Gabriel around the neck, but this seemed to be trying to pull him away, so benefit of the doubt. Punished with a booking for both Gabriel and Costa in the classic ref move of "I haven't actually got a clue what happened here, but stop it". Good from Gabriel in my opinion to come back and get involved. Team spirit etc
• 41st minute - Gabriel and Costa jabbering at each other on the way back to the halfway line. Your mum's a......, no your mum's a..... kind of stuff. Gabriel then flicks a leg in between Costa's legs but does not make contact (thanks ESPN Brazil). I thought on first viewing he'd also poked Costa in the eye, but I was clearly wrong. Costa then turns angel and asks for retribution - arguably unsporting conduct again. 
• 2nd half - stopped making notes on minutes - dive for penalty (yellow) and then a kick out off the ball at Oxlade-Chamberlain - well that's a straight red surely....Mike Dean's already made that clear in this game.

So by my maths - Costa should have had 3 yellows, 2 straight reds and an "Orange" for the chest bump thing. The only thing he was booked for was frankly nonsense. Should Gabriel have been sent off? Sure - he was booked and did something stupid - although they seem to have previous from Spain when Costa elbowed him 2 years ago. The problem comes from terrible refereeing.

Cards on the table. I'm no fan of Mike Dean. As a general rule, I hate refs who flamboyantly brandish cards, and do the whole "come here,...no, come HERE" thing. The one's who love the limelight. There's a blog going round about Mike Dean's record in Arsenal games over the last 5 years too - I'm not sure he's biased per se, however the statistics are interesting in how Arsenal statistically underperform/received fewer penalties and more red cards than the average with other refs, or his average. However, on the grounds of last week, you have to call into question his competency, and that of his team. He fundamentally lost control of the game, and how the officials missed so many offences I don't know. A stronger ref would have separated Costa and Gabriel - their teammates should have too, but Dean is equally culpable. He told Monreal to go away, who was there to translate as Gabriel speaks about 11 words of English. He's overly officious, had a shocker and singlehandedly changed the game. That's not his job, and how he has got away without punishment I don't know.

The subsequent reversal of the bans is of bugger all satisfaction. As Wenger said, it meant playing 10 vs 11 rather than 11 vs 10 for over half a match. I thought we weren't too bad before the red card - not saying we were going to win, but looked pretty comfortable. Against 10, we'd have had a real chance to push on second half. That was taken away. It also pushes the narrative again - Wenger can't beat Mourinho etc. It's frankly nonsense - in the Community Shield, Chelsea went out to win and were outplayed, and didn't look threatening at all before Gabriel's red card. I'd argue that the most recent evidence is that Arsene has worked out (finally) how to play against Mourinho.

The final point is about technology. I can't stand the luddite mentality of those in control of the game. Cricket, rugby, tennis have all embraced technology without it harming there sports, as have the NFL. No one is asking for robot referees, but it's insane that we are so unwilling to try and assist games that have so much riding on them. For example, the excuse that you would have to stop the game is often used - well the game was stopped for 4 minutes on Saturday. More than enough time for a video review of the whole event. When a goal is scored, the game is stopped. It's either a goal, or not, in which case the buzzer watch doesn't go off it it doesn't cross the line. If it does, and it's a tight offside, why not review the video? I'd also give retrospective bans for diving - increasing for each offence and starting with 5 games. So dive, win a penalty, then miss a month of football. Next time you dive, miss 6 games, and so on. Then let's see how easily players fall over. Technology doesn't have to take over the game, but it can help in so many ways. It's also such a different sport at the elite level to Sunday league that that's a nonsense excuse too. Ever seen a player's dad reffing at the top level...

Right, rant over. YOU CAN ALL COME BACK NOW!!!

In other PL news, West Ham should just play all their home games away. Sunderland are dreadful, Watford have now won 2 on the bounce and Leicester should stop giving away 2 goal leads before playing football. I reckon Rodgers will be gone in the next 2 weeks at Liverpool, and Man Utd seem to be starting to rumble again, although by some accounts, Southampton deserved a point.

Let's get statty:

This week, 

31 people played (season high)

Most popular predicted result: Man City WIN (29/31

Most disputed result: Stoke vs Leicester (11-7-12 split)

Highest odds: Me 18872/1 (not entirely sure how)

Lowest odds: Aron Kleiman 4943/1

Average odds: 9625/1

Best predictor: Dinkin 5/10

Worst predictors: Tarek & Will O'D 1/10

Average score: 2.90/10

Best Predicted result: Bournemouth WIN (21/31)

Worst predicted result: Liverpool vs Norwich DRAW & West Ham WIN (0/31)

Swing: Russell Martin's equaliser  - fooled 28 of us

Everybody's results:

HZ's results deserve a star next to them as he only submitted the last 4 matches.

To the leaderboard, for those who've played >2/3 available weeks (5/6)

And finally, to this week's predictions:

Spurs vs Man City - MAN CITY

Leicester vs Arsenal - ARSENAL

Liverpool vs Aston Villa - LIVERPOOL

Man Utd vs Sunderland - MAN UTD

Southampton vs Swansea - SOUTHAMPTON

Stoke vs Bournemouth - STOKE

West Ham vs Norwich - NORWICH

Newcastle vs Chelsea - CHELSEA

Watford vs Crystal Palace - WATFORD

WBA vs Everton - DRAW

Total odds: 1475/1 (PaddyPower)

Good luck guys, and thanks for staying with me through my rage