So you aren't watching the FA Cup final either

[Colemans Left Hook]

out of the last 13 matches in the fa cup between these teams chelsea have won one drawn 4 and lost 8
courtesy of sky sports.

I am right in saying the very first pre- qualifying round  usually starts in August -- the winners aren't going to be holding it "clear" (if you know what i mean) until it comes up for grabs again.

it seems in 2019 pre-qualifying matches had taken place before August 27th 2019

"One hundred and sixteen ties were set out as the Emirates FA Cup first round qualifying draw was made at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday afternoon."

Peterborough Sports, who cruised to a 7-0 preliminary round win over Bugbrooke St Michaels at the weekend, will travel to East Thurrock United.


http://www.thefa.com/news/2019/aug/27/fa-cup-first-round-qualifying-draw-270819

[Highland Rover]

Managed the first couple of minutes but the constantly changing advertising board really annoyed me ! At one stage Arsenal were attacking and the advert changed to Budweiser and the Arsenal player was lost in the background !

[Colemans Left Hook]

Managed the first couple of minutes but the constantly changing advertising board really annoyed me ! At one stage Arsenal were attacking and the advert changed to Budweiser and the Arsenal player was lost in the background !

if you are still awake i am sure this riveting fact will wake you up !!!

bet you didn't know Budweiser Stella Artois and Evian water  (the "natural source" of all my Patrick Evina jokes over the years) are all owned by the same company !!  draw your own conclusuions what they use "the water" for 

[idler]

Managed the first couple of minutes but the constantly changing advertising board really annoyed me ! At one stage Arsenal were attacking and the advert changed to Budweiser and the Arsenal player was lost in the background !

I watched about 20 minutes of the first half and then called it a day. The advertising boards really put me off as well.
I went back to watching the cricket to see Johnny Bairstow get up to 3,000 runs. He took 72 matches, exactly the same as Joe Root. Just out for 82 and typically during a good innings, out off a nothing ball.

[graingrover]

Why would we want to watch that game ..we are real football fans not TV viewers .

[Colemans Left Hook]

out of the last 13 matches in the fa cup between these teams chelsea have won one drawn 4 and lost 8
courtesy of sky sports.

so the stat for chelsea is now,   out of 14 matches won one drawn four lost nine

surely that's worse than Rovers record against Reading !!

watched the last ten minutes on a  low quality very small screen (which had the advantage of making me not see the ads) - Pedro got all he deserved by throwing himself on the floor trying to get a penalty . The tv camera gave an excellent view of the non collision and he should with hindsight have got a yellow card ,  yes it was his last game in english football.

have just renamed Arsenal ..   "Polyfilla Arsenal" ...... this win just papers over the cracks

[BillyStubbsTears]

I watched a few minutes out of the corner of my eye. Really just paying tribute to the event that used to be the FA Cup Final. When it was the only live match of the season and you'd pull the curtains closed so that there'd be no light reflecting off the telly screen.

Days when it mattered. When it was an epic.

Before it became yet another emotionless duel between two of a handful of the elite.

Anyroad, this time, I was watching out of the corner of my eye, as I said. I missed two of the goals. But I did see Granit Xhaka go down like a dropped bag of gravel. It looked like he'd been mortally wounded and I felt for the lad. I shouted out, "OFF!" in response, because you get dragged in, don't you? But the replays showed Granit (sic) had stood on somebody's toe end, and chucked himself to the ground screaming, resulting in a red card for the opponent.

Truly, if that is what wins football matches today, I do not give a shite about the game and I don't want my kids giving their souls to the game. Because it is disgusting.

Imagine, as a fan, celebrating because your side won, substantially because you had the best millionaire cheat on the pitch.

Imagine how hollow your life has to be for that to matter. For you to celebrate it.

Soul. Lost.

[SydneyRover]

I went to bed forgetting it was on and it sounds like I didn't miss a lot.

[drfchound]

I watched a few minutes out of the corner of my eye. Really just paying tribute to the event that used to be the FA Cup Final. When it was the only live match of the season and you'd pull the curtains closed so that there'd be no light reflecting off the telly screen.

Days when it mattered. When it was an epic.

Before it became yet another emotionless duel between two of a handful of the elite.

Anyroad, this time, I was watching out of the corner of my eye, as I said. I missed two of the goals. But I did see Granit Xhaka go down like a dropped bag of gravel. It looked like he'd been mortally wounded and I felt for the lad. I shouted out, "OFF!" in response, because you get dragged in, don't you? But the replays showed Granit (sic) had stood on somebody's toe end, and chucked himself to the ground screaming, resulting in a red card for the opponent.

Truly, if that is what wins football matches today, I do not give a shite about the game and I don't want my kids giving their souls to the game. Because it is disgusting.

Imagine, as a fan, celebrating because your side won, substantially because you had the best millionaire cheat on the pitch.

Imagine how hollow your life has to be for that to matter. For you to celebrate it.

Soul. Lost.

I was working on something on the computer and had the match on the tv, lifting my eyes when something happened to catch my attention.
I happened to be looking at the screen when the sending off incident happened.
My first instinct was that nothing serious had happened because the Arsenal player went down with a scream then spun round a couple of times on his back.
He was very obviously trying to get the Chelsea player sent off.
Anyone who has played the game will know that when you get really badly hurt you do not spin round on your back.
More than likely you keep still.
Cheating like that needs to be stamped out (pun intended) of the game.

[Donnywolf]

Disgusting "con" by Xhaka

The pundits reckoned the first Yellow was only just a Yellow even though Xhaka made a meal of that one too but the second ? Despicable

I think it was BST who said earlier "in future will kids support the Team with the most cheating millionaires  ?"

[Donnywolf]

Just found the quote so ignore my Home brew afflicted attempt above.





Truly, if that is what wins football matches today, I do not give a shite about the game and I don't want my kids giving their souls to the game. Because it is disgusting.

Imagine, as a fan, celebrating because your side won, substantially because you had the best millionaire cheat on the pitch.

Imagine how hollow your life has to be for that to matter. For you to celebrate it.

[ravenrover]

Isn't it Ceballos involved in the 2nd tackle? Never a booking

[EasyforDennis]

What I fail to understand is. We can all see it is cheating but why can't the referees see it?

[BillyStubbsTears]

I struggle to see the point in VAR if it is used to give a toenail-length offside on the flawed premise that a pass occurs at a precise instant in time, but can't be used to catch a blatant cheat in the showpiece game of the season.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Having watched the highlights, there was also a blatant foul by Bellerin in the build up to the winning goal. Again, what is the point of VAR?

[VivaRovers]

I am right in saying the very first pre- qualifying round  usually starts in August -- the winners aren't going to be holding it "clear" (if you know what i mean) until it comes up for grabs again.

it seems in 2019 pre-qualifying matches had taken place before August 27th 2019

Ordinarily their are two FA Cup rounds in August; the extra-preliminary round and preliminary round. The draw for these usually happens in early July I think. There are then four further qualifying rounds before the 1st round proper when the League clubs come in, ordinarily on the first full weekend in November.

No idea how they're going to cram that, plus all the other non-league competitions (FA Vase / FA Trophy, County Cups and various League Cups), into a season that's going to be at least a month shorter than usual.

[Donnywolf]

I struggle to see the point in VAR if it is used to give a toenail-length offside on the flawed premise that a pass occurs at a precise instant in time, but can't be used to catch a blatant cheat in the showpiece game of the season.

Got to agree. VAR has its undoubted uses and that ought to have included catching Xhaka diving for the second yellow which (one could argue) helpes decide the destiny of the supposed "best Cup Competition in the World)

Also ought to have been used in the Aston Villa "ghost goal" incident - though probably not in its remit - it SHOULD have been