Strange things happen as Arsenal lose to supposedly inferior opposition and Rob Styles makes a manager cross

The Carling Cup just got interesting! Not just because my beloved Watford take on Tottenham in the quarter-final tonight on the hallowed turf of Vicarage Road, but because unusual and weird things are starting to happen.

Unique

In last night’s two quarter-final ties things happened the like of which we have never seen before. The two that stand out most obviously as being unique are as follows:

Ludicrous

I have occasionally ranted about Rob Styles before as he has made several high profile mistakes yet somehow manages to keep his job at the very top of the English game. The latest one this season prior to last night was the ludicrous penalty he awarded for Manchester United when Bolton’s Jay Lloyd Samuel tackled him fairly at Old Trafford.

I’ll leave Stoke manager Tony Pulis to explain how he feels about the performance of the much maligned referee in last night’s game between his side and Derby County in which Stoke had a goal disallowed and then lost 1-0 to an injury time penalty.

“Richard Cresswell has scored a goal, it’s a bad decision, but Rob is only two yards away. And for the penalty which they win at the end, Rob’s at the back of the box, he can’t see, and the assistant referee doesn’t put his flag up either. I’m sure Rob will ring me when he sees Richard’s goal and will apologise.”

The fact is that if he has made a mistake Rob Styles probably will ring Tony Pulis to apologise. He apologised to Gary Megson and Bolton for getting it wrong before and he apologised to Rafa Benitez and Liverpool when he cost them victory over Chelsea last season with an equally poor decision.

‘Get away with it’

It is time for Mr Styles to get the decisions right in the first place rather than get them wrong and then ‘get away with it’ because he admits his mistake and apologises.

In relation to the penalty, there is no doubt that the ball struck Andy Griffin on the hand. I actually think it probably was a penalty. Tony Pulis accepts that it struck his player’s hand but feels the decision was wrong because it was unintentional. The reason he is so disappointed by the decision is that Cresswell scaored for Stoke and Styles disallowed it for handball when Pulis is sure the ball struck him in the stomach and not the arm.

Sour grapes

Of course there are sour grapes from the manager when he has gone out of the Cup to an injury time penalty but Pulis was fair and reasonable with what he said.

“But I am not going to slaughter the referee, he just made a couple of mistakes. It was our fault we have gone out, we had plenty of chances and Ricardo Fuller could have had four.”

Managers get in a lot of trouble for attacking referees and not sticking to the ‘Respect’ agenda, but surely the authorities must notice if several of the cases are about the same referee?

Abrupt end

The exciting run of Arsenal’s youngsters in the Carling Cup came to an abrupt end last night with a 2-0 defeat at Championship side Burnley.

The defeat should not cloud the memory of the excellent performances of these lads in their wins 6-0 against Sheffield United and 3-0 over Wigan.

Spectacularly

I suppose the run had to end somewhere like it did so spectacularly at Tottenham last season, but although they played some great football and created a number of chances, Burnley were worthy winners and the Gunners’ campaign faded out with something of a whimper.

If I were an Arsenal fan I would be slightly concerned that the wealth of talent in the ‘second team’ at the club has the propensity to play brilliantly and win 3-0 against good opposition and then lose tamely 2-0 to less impressive opponents. You wouldn’t catch the ‘first team’ beating the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea and then losing tamely to a team like Stoke…

Mighty

So there we are, the first night of quarter-finals has produced two semi-finalists from the Championship. Tonight a third one will join them when the mighty Watford destroy Harry Redknapp’s resurgent Tottenham and run out comfortable winners by three goals to nil.

The other game sees Manchester United take on Blackburn. Paul Ince will probably play his strongest team whereas United are likely to field the likes of Foster, Evans, Possebon, Welbeck and Manucho.

‘Bigger fish to fry’

Defeat for Blackburn against the United reserves would be damaging for the morale of a side on such a bad run. Defeat for United would be disappointing but not disastrous for Fergie as they have ‘bigger fish to fry’. I expect Blackburn to be too strong for United’s youngsters and they will join Watford in the semi-finals.

I’m preparing for my trip to Wembley to watch Watford captain Jay Demerit lifting the Carling Cup already. Well, I can dream can’t I?

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