This weekend we saw an ugly side to Marouane Fellaini’s game. He committed three assaults on Stoke’s captain Ryan Shawcross.

The first was the most blatant and the worst, as he looked around for the ref, then stared at Shawcross before inexplicably headbutting the England defender.

He would follow that up later in the game with an attempted elbow and a palm to the centre backs face.

Fellaini’s Everton boss Davie Moyes was interviewed after the game and you could tell by just looking him that he was embarrassed and angry. He stated that his player was in the wrong and will accept whatever punishment that fits the crime or crimes committed.

It was refreshing to see a manager come out and make it known that this was not the kind of conduct that was acceptable at his football club.

Fellaini has since come out with a statement apologising to Ryan Shawcross, his Toffee teammates and their fans. I have no doubt this was done on the say so of his manager and its a smart move as it will diffuse the situation with the media not making it a huge story.

Now we have to wait and see what punishment the FA dishes out for the Belgian. His first offence had it been seen by the ref would have resulted in a red and an automatic three game ban.

The second offence (the attempted elbow), didn’t really make contact and I doubt on its own would have resulted in any further punishment.

Finally their is the palm to the face. This was seen by the referee and he gave a foul but nothing more and its my understanding that this means no further action will be taken on that incident.

Now by my calculations that should mean that Fellaini serves a three match ban. Possibly four if they decide to include the elbow. That would equal John Terry’s ban for the abuse he dished out to Anton Ferdinand.

Obviously this would be a big blow to Everton as Marouane has been their top performer this season. He will probably miss the clubs Christmas fixtures.

He should however feel a tad bit lucky.

Had he done that on the street, he’d have been arrested. In fact Everton legend Duncan Ferguson served a three month prison term in Glasgow’s notorious Barlinnie jail, after he headbutted an opponent while playing for Rangers.

That said Zinidine Zidane did the same act in a World Cup final and all he got was a statue!

I am a little bit annoyed by Roberto Mancini’s comments he made on Mark Clattenburg.

The referee was the fourth official for last weeks Manchester derby and reported Man City’s Gareth Barry for using abusive and/or insulting words to an official.

The FA then banned the England midfielder for one game and fined him £8,000.

City manager Mancini had this to say on the subject…

“Gareth is a serious man, a serious player and I don’t know why Clattenburg brought or said these things about Gareth. I don’t know if it’s because he came from this problem after Chelsea but I think every referee or fourth official should understand that after one game you lose in the last second, if a player says inappropriate words they should understand this.”

To mention the ‘Chelsea’ incident (when Clattenburg was wrongfully accused of racially abusing a player) was a cheap shot by Mancini and only adds unnecessary pressure to the referee. To be honest it showed a distinct lack of class in Roberto’s part.

But then Roberto basically admits that Barry could have said inappropriate words to the refs assistant but he should be allowed to do so as Gareth had just lost a vital game in the last minute.

Now here is something for Mancini to think about… Some City fans pelted Man United players with objects with Rio Ferdinand getting hit on the eye with a coin. Plus a fan then ran onto the park trying to get at Rio.

Now Mancini, these fans had just seen their team lose last minute in a huge fixture, is that a reasonable excuse for their behaviour?

No!

So accept your player acted inappropriately and take the punishment.

Mancini should look at how Moyes has reacted to his players indiscipline and take a note out of his book.

It has been a long time since Aston Villa have impressed me but against Liverpool they certainly impressed.

Obviously a 3-1 away scoreline at Anfield is going to cause a stir. That wasn’t the most impressive thing though. The style of how Villa went about their work was what impressed me most.

They didn’t have as much time on the ball as their hosts and they didn’t pepper their opponents goals as much as Liverpool did on theirs.

But the young side worked hard and when they did have the ball they used it well. The goals were superb and well taken. Christian Benteke took both his goals well, showing good strength and craft for his second. His assist in back-heeling the ball back to Andreas Wiemann was majestic.

The defending against the likes of Luis Suarez, Steven Gerrard and Raheem Sterling was sound and the side showed steely determination. The passing was good and being a Scot it was great to see Barry Bannan having a good game in the middle of the park.

It could be a case of the squad getting used to what boss Paul Lambert wants from them. If they can play like that more often than not then you can’t see relegation being much of an issue. Actually if they can become that prolific in a regular basis then you might just see them lifting the League Cup this season.

Posted on December 16th, 2012 by scott
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