Football

You can if you're an Arsenal player and it's the 92nd minute (still bitter).

Henry?

Gallas scored that with his head. Still handball before that but ref didn't see it.

Six substitutions, WB driving and consistently the wasting: 3mins
Last kick of the the games is our corner, cleared to the edge of their area when the idiot in the middle blows. This is nothing to do with the utter dirge served up by the midfield though.

Can anyone confirm the whole "deliberate/not deliberate" legalese in relation to hand balls? I thought the latter meant the game played on as it does week in week out all over the pitch? Clearly it was not intentional, what gives?

...Or your name is Terry Henry...

As above, Henry didn't score. Gallas did. With his head.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siJQZs2Sbho

Koscielny. The first in Arsenal's increasingly long list of injury times goals against Burnley that should have been disallowed.

You're absolutely correct! My bad but do teh rules explicitly state anything about scoring?

If you were a betting man would you seriously put money on Spurs getting anything out of that game?

I can’t see City lose the title at this stage, they’re that strong. I don’t recall any season where 3 weeks before Christmas the title race was all but over.

Ah yes. You mentioned Burnley just a few moments ago too. Doh.

I can't find it on any official website, also the rules are quite dry to read. This is interesting though:
http://www.football365.com/news/former-ref-says-solanke-handball-call-was-correct

From the comments:

between the goalposts and under the crossbar, provided that no offence has been committed by the team scoring the goal." No mention of hands. Handling the ball is covered in law 12 "Handling the ball involves a DELIBERATE act of a player making contact with the ball with the hand or arm." As we all know the "unnatural position" interpretation has been added to stop people putting their hands into blocking positions before the ball has been kicked. But there is nothing that says you can't score a goal with your hand if it's not-deemed "handling the ball" which it ONLY is if there's the sggestion of intention.

HANDLING THE BALL

Handling the ball involves a deliberate act of a player making contact
with the ball with the hand or arm.

The following must be considered: the movement of the hand towards the
ball (not the ball towards the hand) the distance between the opponent
and the ball (unexpected ball) the position of the hand does not
necessarily mean that there is an offence touching the ball with an
object held in the hand (clothing, shinguard, etc.) is an offence
hitting the ball with a thrown object (boot, shinguard, etc.) is an
offence The goalkeeper has the same restrictions on handling the ball
as any other player outside the penalty area. Inside their penalty
area, the goalkeeper cannot be guilty of a handling offence incurring
a direct free kick or any related sanction but can be guilty of
handling offences that incur an indirect free kick. Indirect free kick
An indirect free kick is awarded if a player: plays in a dangerous
manner impedes the progress of an opponent without any contact being
made is guilty of dissent, using offensive, insulting or abusive
language and/or gestures or other verbal offences prevents the
goalkeeper from releasing the ball from the hands or kicks or attempts
to kick the ball when the goalkeeper is in the process of releasing it
commits any other offence, not mentioned in the Laws, for which play
is stopped to caution or send off a player

An indirect free kick is awarded if a goalkeeper, inside their penalty
area, commits any of the following offences: controls the ball with
the hands for more than six seconds before releasing it touches the
ball with the hands after: releasing it and before it has touched
another player it has been deliberately kicked to the goalkeeper by a
team-mate receiving it directly from a throw-in taken by a team-mate A
goalkeeper is considered to be in control of the ball when:

the ball is between the hands or between the hand and any surface
(e.g. ground, own body) or by touching it with any part of the hands
or arms except if the ball rebounds accidentally from the goalkeeper
or the goalkeeper has made a save holding the ball in the outstretched
open hand bouncing it on the ground or throwing it in the air

A goalkeeper cannot be challenged by an opponent when in control of
the ball with the hands.

http://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/lawsandrules/laws/football-11-11/law-12---fouls-and-misconduct

I'm not a betting man so....

I'm hoping we're set up to give it a go. To go and get something from the game.
Last time we played them in pre season, I watched Man City tonk us, and hound us out off the park . Pre season and all that, but that was a pre cursor to how they've played so far. But the sheriff has managed against Guardiola sides before and his teams always gave them a run for their money even if the results didn't go his way.
I'd like us to get something out of the game and I'd be happy with a draw.
Not putting any money on it though..

Interpretation is that having your arm in an unnatural position = deliberate. i.e. standing in the wall with your arms in the air before the ball is hit.

You can score with your hand.

the sheriff

Please Santa, take this nickname away forever. There's a blowjob in it for you.

Surely @Velocio can create a script which changes any mention of 'the sheriff' to 'Pochettino' so that we can all stop cringing.

I can write a browser plug-in based script for that like I did for my old friend Jeez

Why stop there?
Why not just have something that matches the time of post to the writer, grabs some words from the post, and matches it to the most likely guardian article and posts the whole article rather than a transcript / "honest this isn't plagiarised" version?

a script which changes any mention of 'the sheriff' to 'Pochettino'

Could lead to some interesting discussions of Bob Marley songs.

Rusty Pochettino badges etc and so on.

Like and hope, pretty much sums up your chances.

Let’s hope we can kick on from here and get amongst the CL places.

Top four probably beyond us now. With eight teams in realistic contention for those slots, one cannot really hope for qualification more than every other year. Burnley and Everton have the advantage of no European football this season. Our best hope lies in the fact that we only have two more European games and only two cup games left so that we can now focus on the Top Four but it may be a stretch too far.

Big game tomorrow. 4th v 5th and will see if either Villa or Derby can push Cardiff for the 2nd automatic slot. Expecting another disappointing draw due to lack of any fit forwards on our side.

How's Onomah doing for you guys? I speak to the sole Villa supporter at work, but all I'm doing is fishing for Onomah info. Hoping he's kicked on and comes back to us and can find a place in our first team. I thinking possible in house Dembele alternative, but afraid that might be a comparison too far..