You can't give that as a penalty.

Its not your natural reaction to ring your arms around and ooponent and throw him to the floor, that happens day in day out, but it is your natural reaction to protect your face.

At that short distance, does he deliberately make an attempt to handle the ball? I dont think so no.

Has the ball traveled much distance - nope not at all

Even if Essien had his arms down by his ankles, and the ball hit his fingers, the ref was still giving a penalty. I just knew it would happen.

I defended Richards penalty, as did many others when he slid in to block and it hit his knee - then struck his arms which where over his head as he was sliding.

Isnt a penalty. I wouldnt be like raging about it if we got turned down a penalty like that...

this guy would be screwed if he had to play football

Pahaaa!

I just watched MOTD. In the replay, Essien is barely an inch off the ground when the ball strikes his hand. His arms are raised to the height of his head. That's exactly what a keeper would do to save the ball.
http://www.mysoccerplace.net/video/manchester-city-vs-chelsea-2-1-motd
(12:06)

For me it's a blatant penalty. He didn't even jump. He didn't protest either.

I'm with Seb, penalty.

His hand goes up just as the ball was getting struck, blatant pen.

Is that a pen?

If he was a Stoke player I would be going mental for stupidity.

He had no choice but give it as a penatly! He wasn't in the air hardly he made no effort to clear it with anything other than his arms.

Many a time i've had the ball slapped between me chops in the penatly area because last that I want to do is raise me arms incase he gives it.

But your also correct on what you said Derry, it is a natural reaction to raise your arms etc and when your pulling on somebody it's intentional so if 1 is a penatly so shouldthe other.

Other thn just then in the last seconds where Cech done fantasic, what a boring game this has been for the neutral, very narrow, very dull and too packed in the middle of the park.

Don't think it was a pen myself watch Lampard I don't think even he thinks it is a pen. But you do see them given now and then so it is worth an appeal obviously but I wouldn't think it was a pen.

Spurs are doing what they done vs us, trying to drown out the midfield and then slot parker in for a 5 man defence when you do get through them.

Gonna be an interesting 60 mins to see if Spurs do actually commit more than 2/3 forward when they decide to counter. I reckon if Chelsea get an early goal in the second half, this could turn into a bit of a goal fest with between 3-5 goals.

Hope this upcoming half is a lot more interesting.

What has happened to Daniel Sturridge? Seems to have gone back to his Man City form.

Pretty poor show.

I deffo think its a penalty. On the basis that if Lampard had put the ball past him (as he did) Gallas then sticks his leg out, and kicks lampard to the floor.

Thats a penalty. Its a bad tackle by Gallas and if you commit yourself in the box, its a red card and its denying Lampard a goalscoring oppitunity, so its a red card also.

So many little things, we got in all the positions, by Mata couldnt get enough on the flick to Drogba, Lampard couldnt get enough on it to Mata, Drogba was rushing his shots.

If we had a clear cut oppitunity we would have taken it no doubt in my mind. Mata hitting the post... and even then the rebound, Luiz throws a leg at it when Drogba is there ready to slot in the ball.

Was really unlucky for us today.

Yes Cahill denied Adey, Bale hit the bar (cech had it covered) and A.Cole great save also... but I dont think it was quite one sided as Gary Neville is trying to make out lol.

Walker Man of the match? You having a laugh? Cahill was the best player on the pitch, second was Adey/Cole... Walker wasnt top 5.

The Ramieres penalty claim? Didnt see it clear cut but Ramieres isnt going down there for no reason. Ekotto is the wrong side and Ramieres needs to make contact to score and goes to ground? I dont think thats a dive, thats a pen on that evidence alone.

Worse thing about these penalties and why I moan so much, is 90% of these types of appeals against us are given. We dont get any of them. Totally unjust.

First one I would say no, Ramires though, it was very suspect the referee can not see through players though and couldn't see what was going on, so he can't give a penalty based on the fact Ramires went down and Ekotto may have pulled him down.

Chelsea were lucky Spurs thought they were Liverpool today, in the fact they had brilliant chances and done the hard thing and missed the goal rather than getting it in. But brilliant defending by Cahill and I too was a bit confused why Walker got the man of the match. Also quite confused as to why Torres was not brought on any earlier.

Both teams were poor today, very bad game for the neutral to watch, but oh well...

Hope Liverpool smash Wigwam today and I really hope Sterling comes on and makes a big difference, different class that lad!

Thought Lamps had a shout, but I dunno, just one that usually isn't given because the referee sees it as easing a player off the ball or shielding it to a keeper, whereas if it happened in midfield it would have been a clear foul.

As for the game it wasn't flash but think Spurs definitely finished the stronger and if anyone was going to win it was them.

I don't think Sturridge is worthy of his spot at the moment, he looks selfish, off the pace and not providing your team with any width as he drifts inside for most of the game.

Liverpool team quite intreresting today against Wigan. Raheem Sterling, Jonjo Shelvey and Nathan Ecclestone all make the bench.

Really excited to see if Raheem can tear defences apart at this level like he does with reserve level football. if he develops an end product he will be one hell of a player for us. Reminds me a lot of a young SWP. Runs like him too.

I'll have to wait until I can find a feed of MOTD until I can give you my expert opinion

This is truly dreadful, where is the passion from our team, they look like they literally can not be bothered. Losing at home to Wigan, that's laughable.

Sort it out.

Don't care about the score as long as Sterling gets some game time

I took out Jarvis late last night from my fantasy team. Since the players I take out ALWAYS score, I went to do my accumulators today and stuck a side bet on Jarvis to score. It only took him 25 minutes...

Ok scratch that this is abysmal

Sterling is a god. Can't wait for him to play more often.

Sterling will run past players at will and has amazing pace which is what we lack without Bellamy. Just a question of his end product.

We've just been played off the park there. A lesson in keep ball from a good Wigan side. Barely touched it after the Suarez disallowed goal. Fair play to them.

For our part it is back to the drawing board, until Agger is back I see a lot more L's than W's for us though. With Carra back there we defend so much deeper, and it cripples Skrtel as a result.

I love Kenny and I will stick by him. Next season with Lucas, Agger, Sterling and a creative midfielder we can surely do better than 7th/8th. We now however have a problem with shifting the players we bought last year who have been outrageously poor.

Sterling must start next game. More importantly Downing and Henderson must not!