<span class="titolo">Hughes: Referees Are Soft On 'Big Four'</span></p> <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p> <span class="sommario">Ahead of Blackburn's Carling Cup quarter-final against Arsenal on Tuesday night, Rovers manager Mark Hughes has upped the ante - and perhaps sought to exert a bit of pressure on the officials - by claiming that the 'Big Four' are shown greater leniency by referees.</span></p> Blackburn Rovers manager Mark Hughes has asked why referee Alan Wiley declined to brandish any red cards during Arsenal’s sometimes stormy 1-0 victory over Chelsea on Sunday.</p> Wiley booked ten players during the mach - five from each side - but Hughes reckoned his own players would not have escaped without a dismissal.</p> “I looked at the game on Sunday and saw some of the challenges, which could have been straight reds, and the referee was asking the players to come over and have a chat to calm it down,” Hughes said.</p> “They tend to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I don’t see that where Blackburn Rovers are concerned. I just see yellow cards coming out too readily and, as a consequence, we are always on a tightrope for sendings-off.</p> "Arsenal don’t pick up yellows and reds for the challenges that we get penalised for.”</p> Hughes may have a point; but equally he may be suffering from selective memory. For the first eight or nine seasons of Arsene Wenger's reign at Arsenal, he was ritually pilloried for his team's "disgraceful" disiplinary record.</p> Every time Patrick Vieira, Dennis Bergkamp, Ray Parlour or Martin Keown got sent off again, the headlines writers had a field day and the match report was not complete without reference to that being the 35th, 56th or 87th red card under Wenger's management.</p> It stopped when people started to lose count, but at the same time Arsenal's disciplinary record has improved significantly.</p> However, when Arsenal and Chelsea met in the Carling Cup final last season, there were three red cards shown.</p> So maybe Hughes's comments are a bit of kidology ahead of Tuesday's Cup clash between Rovers and what will probably be a young Arsenal team of largely fringe players.</p> </div></p>
Keep crying ya turdbag, red cards on big club matches would have killed the intensity of the game, everybody knows that.</p> </p>
yeah, their pretty hard, we achieved a draw last time, hopefully we have healthy squad against them.</p>
The article says you might play the young guys and probably reserves. (to rest the starters for more important games)</p> </p>
doesnt sound good, but winning the league is more important in my opinion, so i guess its a good sacrafice.</p>
Yeah, getting a draw against the Rovers and then having a full squad for the rest of the year is much better than injuring a player or two and getting the win.</p>
boo-hoo. Here come the excuses. An Inferior team moaning. The only truth of this is that No Away team gets a penalty EVER a Old Trafford.</p>
