Loading the Odds

You have to hand it to Chelsea - when it comes to persuading the referee to send an opposing player off they are absolutely in a class of their own. On an entirely different level. They have, in short, lowered the bar.

Take the match against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge for instance. Eight minutes from time, Liverpool’s Spanish keeper Pepe Reina sprinted out to the touchline to tackle Eidur Gudjohnson. He got the ball alright, but Gudjohnson stayed down long enough to ensure that the referee noted that it was a potentially dangerous challenge from behind and therefore worthy of a yellow card.

But why stop there? As Reina walked towards the referee, Arjen Robben was careful to throw a remark in his direction, just enough to incense the goalkeeper and with a little bit of luck provoke him to retaliate. Reina merely brushed his glove against Robben’s face and the winger instantly collapsed to the ground in apparent agony. And to press the point, John Terry and William Gallas converged on Mr Wiley to express their horror at this outrage.

Reina was sent off and of course, no action was taken against Robben for what many would regard as cheating, or against Terry and Gallas for what some judges would consider incitement. And in much the same way, in the 15th minute of the game no action had been taken against Carvalho for elbowing Kewell in the face just before a corner was taken.

If there is an appropriate word for all this, then perhaps that word is ‘contemptible’.

What it is most certainly not is professional.