Change the f*cking record I hear you say, but I won't, I am stubborn git and will stick to my machine guns. One can always read too much into the actual results of games, as dodgy decisions can often have massive impacts on the outcome of games, consequently resulting in the better teams losing games that they did not deserve to lose.Take Manchester United against Chelsea today, 1-1 was the score, chances at both ends and the game hung in the balance, cue the referee stepping up with a very dodgy useless decisions. I thought that there had to be some intent for a penalty to be given for handball, lots of referees clearly think otherwise as they've been dishing out numerous pens this season for very unintentional handballs. Carrick's arm got in the way of the cross, much in the same way that Gallas' arm had accidentally got in the way of a chipped ball into the box, the ref pointed to the spot.
Chelsea win 2-1 and the title remains in the balance, even we now have a very slim chance of success, albeit about as slim as an anorexic's little finger. The point is that these big decisions change games and they do not always even themselves out over a season. In the last few weeks in the Premiership we've seen the Drogba offside goal against ourselves, the dodgy Gallas penalty at Old Trafford and now the dodgy Carrick penalty at the Bridge, not to mention several decisions earlier in the season like the Birmingham penalty at St Andrews for Clichy's clean tackle. These decisions turn games and consequently titles, and it really frustrates me because the FA could wipe out a significant number of these errors if they chose to embrace modern technology, rather than ignore it and stick their heads in the sand.
Chelsea may go on to win the title and then the history books will show them to be the Premiership champions for 2007-8, it will be forgotten what an average side they are given their massive outlay on players, it will be forgotten how Manchester United and Arsenal were far superior sides over the course of the season, through the misleading eye of retrospect these details will be forgotten. So it's about bloody time the FA brought in video technology to reduce the incidence of these glaring errors, perfection is obviously not achievable, but we could do a damn sight better than this.
