Make sure you listen to this week’s Soccerlens Podcast that discusses horse placenta treatment, Henry’s handball and a lot more.

Arsenal striker Robin Van Persie headed to Serbia earlier this week to get ’special’ treatment for the torn ligaments in his ankle.

We didn’t actually follow RVP all the way over, but our Eastern European correspondent (Croatian if you must ask) insists that this is exactly how Serbian witchdoctors administer placenta treatments to patients. What’s more, RVP insists that he is getting this treatment with Arsene Wenger’s blessing, and the Professor’s never wrong, is he?

Studs Up by Chris Toy

If it works for Robin…

In fact, you can’t really tell them apart anymore:

Studs Up, by Chris Toy

…so for FIFA to get tough on them, especially in wake of recent UEFA efforts to make a public display of intent to stamp out diving by banning Eduardo (which, incidentally, sets a nice precedent for post-match video reviews), is understandable, if not always ‘fair’.

Studs Up by Chris Toy

No he hasn’t. Of course he hasn’t. My apologies for leading you to think that he had.

However, it does help me draw attention to this accurate depiction (comic below) of what ‘football blogging’ can be like when you get people chasing the almightly dollar / pound with scant regard for quality, principles or even long-term sustainability and success.

We have some really talented bloggers here on Soccerlens and elsewhere in the community. A lot of what we do (as a football blogging community) is fascinating work – football is a uniting force across many disciplines and you’ll see art and literary genius in football blogs and podcasts all around you.

After 3 years, I’ve stopped complaining about ‘bloggers writing only to make money’ or journalists ‘painting’ stories a certain way just to get more attention to an article with no point to it (the irony isn’t lost on me here). I’ve stopped admiring and loathing journalists from afar, and I’ve pretty much made my peace with the Sun and the rest.

There are times though, when journalists and bloggers go too far – both in making up stories and in reporting them. If you’re concocting something from nothing and misleading people, you’re scum. But if you’re reporting unverified news in a rush to be ‘first’ without doing the most basic of fact-checks – you’re a moron.

Studs Up by Chris Toy

Because you know, it’s not about the money but the ambition of playing for the richest owners in the game.

The highlight of the Right Result weekend, so to speak, was referee Howard Webb’s decision that is perceived to have changed the flow of the Manchester United versus Tottenham Hotspur game and, with it, the course of the destiny of the Premier League title.

With Spurs 2-0 up after nearly an hour at Old Trafford, United’s title aspirations were back in the balance. But Mr Webb’s decision to award the Reds a penalty, despite keeper Heurelho Gomes playing the ball before colliding with Michael Carrick, triggered an amazing revival that saw United storm to an emphatic 5-2 win (Editor’s note: it’s worth reading Scott’s viewpoint on the decision).

Aston Villa’s hopes of breaking into the top four are long gone and their demise should have been heightened at Bolton Wanderers. With the score at 1-1 at the Reebok Stadium, the home team should have been awarded a penalty when Villa captain Gareth Barry forcibly pushed Tamir Cohen in the area.

Sunday became interfering with an opponent day when the rarely enforced offside criteria should have ruled out two goals. Arsenal were worthy winners against relegation-haunted Middlesbrough at the Emirates. However their first goal should not have stood as, from an offside position, Gunner Nicklas Bendtner clearly distracted Boro keeper Brad Jones.

The same rule applies to Blackburn Rovers’ second goal in their hard-fought win against Wigan Athletic. Skipper Ryan Nelsen should have been denied his first goal in almost five years at Ewood Park with Christopher Samba being the guilty offside offender.

See the full Right Result table here and previous Right Result archives here. To learn more about Right Result and to follow it every week, click here.

If you think the officials got a decision wrong on the weekend, something that would have resulted in a goal or prevented one, let us know in the comments below.

Bitter Much?

Studs Up – Chris Toy

Riley is a good referee. He’s an honest referee. He’s not a Manchester United fan – he was, but like all true United fans he’s moved on to supporting FC United of Manchester in protest at the American scum taking over his beloved club.

If anything, he’s more fond of Everton than he is of Manchester United.

There’s only one problem…

Or how YOU can play your part in helping Liverpool win the Double:

Studs Up – Chris Toy

It doesn’t matter where Jose Mourinho goes these days, there always seems to be someone lurking in the dark (most likely a journalist) that’s ready and willing to jump out and make a story out of the Special One.

Consider for a minute the encounters in the past between Sir Alex Ferguson and Mourinho when he was at Chelsea. The verbal mind games between the two managers were epic battles for survival that neither wanted to lose.

So when Inter drew United in the knockout stage of the Champions League, most figured the handshake and chat between the two could potentially be the biggest story of the enounter. Mourinho’s exit stage left after the first-leg without even acknowledging Ferguson added even more fuel to the fire.

Forget the match at Old Trafford — everyone wanted to see Fergie spit flames and tell the Inter manager off after the second-leg! At least that’s what fans were hoping for.

But when the two met after the match and shared a laugh, everyone seemed to scramble for some story, any story to get Jose on the front page of their daily paper. And lo and behold, The Guardian (and every other British paper) gave us the gem we’d been looking for courtesy of Jose Mourinho and his golden fist of fury:

Greater Manchester police are investigating an allegation of common assault against Jose Mourinho following last night’s Champions League tie between Manchester United and Internazionale at Old Trafford. It has been alleged that the Inter manager punched a supporter close to the Inter team bus as he left the stadium following his side’s 2-0 defeat. The fan, who has not been named, later went into Stretford police station, close to Old Trafford, to report the alleged attack. (The Guardian)

The big question

Jose Mourinho knows how to punch?! I knew he was a fairly good slapper, but I’ve never taken him for a middleweight boxer.  The story has since been refuted by Inter and most likely will quietly go away, and to be honest, I’m not sure I’d be quick to believe a Manchester United fan who walked into his local police station claiming he was just hit by the Special One. I’d imagine it was just another fan trying to get the Mourinho in hot water once again.

So if the story is fake, why in the world would the national media run with something like this? That’s a really good question. If there’s one good thing that can come from this story, it’s the chance to look further into a burning question that’s been boiling up inside of me for some time: Why do we love to hate Jose Mourinho?

His track record

If you look at back at his track record with fans and managers alike he’s found a way to alienate almost every single group he’s ever encountered. Rafa Benitez, Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson could attest to that; and you can definitely add Juve’s Claudio Ranieri to that list since he moved to Seria A.

Supporters? They can’t stand him when they’re playing against him. Liverpool supporters were incensed when he put his finger to his lips in a shushing gesture during the 2005 Carling Cup match after an equaliser. Countless other groups have also wanted to rip his head off and put it on a stake for all the see for various other things he’s done. But I promise you if you had the chance to corner any supporter and ask him if he’d take Jose as his manager, you’d most likely get, ‘in a heartbeart,’ as your response.

Mourinho is probably the most polarising manager we’ve seen in some time. He’s the type of person we love to hate because he’s everything we want in our manager, but at the same time, has all the traits we loathe in the opposition. His perfectly coiffed hair and his impeccable clothing give us the perfect target to bash his looks.

And how about his unfiltered mouth? There have been plenty of occasions where we’ve been blown away by his comments about opposing players or managers. The comments leave us with our mouth agape wondering if he really made that comment.

Learn to love the man

He has an ability for giving managers mental fits with his mind games — but for some reason the mind games, the quotes and his perfect clothing leave us wanting more. In the end I think we love it so much because it gives us another reason to hate the Special that much more. The fact of the matter is, is that we need villians like Jose in the game of football. They make the game worth watching and waiting for in a society where money seems to rule with an iron fist.

So who cares if the guy ticks people off on occasion;  in the end we all know that he’s doing it for us and for the good of the game.  So learn to love and hate Jose at that same time. You’ll be glad you did.

Studs Up – Chris Toy

"The not-so-Special One: Why we love to hate Jose Mourinho" was originally published at Soccerlens.com - Football News.]]> http://soccerlens.com/the-not-so-special-one-why-we-love-to-hate-jose-mourinho/23698/feed/ 0