Rob Styles Demoted to League Two for a Weekend

From the Daily Telegraph's website:

"A week after officiating at Blackburn's Premier League game against leaders Manchester United, referee Rob Styles will be in charge of Saturday's League Two match between Shrewsbury Town and Chester City.

Styles turned down two United penalty appeals and cautioned Wayne Rooney when he complained about a challenge by Steven Reid.

The Premier League would say only that referees' supremo Keith Hackett had 19 referees to choose from for 10 Premier League games each weekend, but it does appear a huge drop in status for a man regarded as one of England's senior referees.

Last month Styles was criticised over a penalty he awarded to Birmingham and in August he was sanctioned following his performance in Liverpool's game at home to Chelsea."

This is why the higher-ups in the Premier League, particularly Keith Hackett, are nothing more than a joke. This is why there's a major problem in England in terms of respecting the referees.

As the article says, there are going to be nine eligible referees every week who don't work a Premiership game. No one makes a big deal about it when a referee isn't picked, unless it's a form of punishment for poor performance in a previous game.

My question is this: Why embarrass the referees by making disciplinary action public? If Keith Hackett didn't want to assign Rob Styles to a Premiership game this weekend, that's fine; there are nine other guys waiting to step in, and he quietly could've sat Styles down and chosen a replacement.

Styles is very experienced and has been around the block a few times. He doesn't need to subjected to the relative humiliation of working a League Two match, and he doesn't gain anything by doing it. Like I said, if Hackett didn't want to select Styles, then he should've just given him the weekend off altogether.

All this does, and we've seen it before with other referees (Mark Clattenburg earlier in the season sticks out to me), is gives players and managers more ammunition to criticize the referees and treat them without respect. It's obvious that Hackett doesn't have the backs of his officials, and demoting them to lower-league duty just chops their authority off at the knees when they get back to the Premiership.

Congratulations to West Bromwich Albion

Math has never been my strong point, at least not since 6th grade. Once I started taking pre-algebra the next year, I just knew I was in trouble for the rest of my school days.

I believe, however, that my math is correct in this scenario. If West Brom, currently on top of the Coca-Cola Championship with 77 points after 44 games, gains two or more points in their last two games, or if third-place Hull City fails to win both of their remaining games, the Baggies will be assured of automatic promotion to the Premier League for next season.

Realistically, West Brom only needs one more point to move up to England's top flight. That one point would give them 78, and even if Hull City was to win their last two games (which would put them on 78 as well), W.B.A. would have a far superior goal differential and that's the first tiebreaker in England.

If you're wondering, West Brom's final two matches are against 21st place Southampton (at home), and at QPR, who are in 14th, so their chances to pick up a point or two are obviously pretty good.

Stoke City, in second place, has 75 points right now. The Potters' position isn't quite as secure but is still strong; their goal differential is five goals worse than that of Hull, but they do have a three point advantage and games against two teams in 20th place or lower. They seem like a good bet to join West Brom in the Premiership next year.

The playoff spots are still up for grabs and will go down to the last day of the season. We have an idea of who the four teams competing for that one last berth to the Premiership will be -- Hull, Bristol City (who was on top of the Championship only a couple weeks ago), Watford, and Crystal Palace -- but a victory for Wolverhampton over Cardiff today would complicate things. Only four points separate teams 3-6 and obviously, you want to finish in either 3rd or 4th to gain the "home-field advantage" in the two-leg playoff semifinals.

I did a post about the Championship recently, talking about the parity in the league and how exciting and heart-pounding it was for fans. While I don't think any of the teams who come up to the Premiership next season will be able to stay up, you still have to give them a lot of credit for making it out of this league this season. Every game is a fight, every game is a battle for three points and every point you can get is so valuable. That's not the case in the Premiership, where some teams basically packed it in for the season in February. I've enjoyed this race in the Championship, and wish more people in the mainstream media would pay attention to it.

Full-Time Thoughts--Liverpool vs. Chelsea

• The second half was a much better 45 minutes of soccer to watch. Both teams went after it, particularly early in the half, and the game was played at a faster tempo.

• Didier Drogba is so ridiculously disinterested in playing for Chelsea that it’s a joke. If I was Avram Grant, I would consider suspending him for the rest of the season and just telling him to stay away from the team. Drogba seems to be a cancer to Chelsea FC right now. He is less than half the player he was under Mourinho.

• Kalou in for Joe Cole seemed to have been a bit of a pointless change. I understand that Cole had had a quiet game up until that point, but he is Chelsea’s most creative attacking player and can provide things that no one else on that team can. One moment of brilliance and Cole could’ve equalized for the Blues, and you can’t say the same about Kalou.

• Frank Lampard didn’t seem to fully be into this game. He was there in body, obviously, but he seemed to be a couple steps off the pace and I don’t think his mind was completely focused on playing Liverpool. After being with his sick mother for a while though, you can’t have expected a wonder game from him either.

• Rafa Benitez clearly outmanaged his counterpart, Avram Grant, tonight. Grant was hesitant to pull the trigger on any attacking moves, and Benitez stood pat and didn’t bring on an extra defender, which in turn likely would’ve brought an immediate countermove from Grant and invited more pressure onto the Reds’ back line. Grant brought Anelka on in the 85th minute, way too late. A guy like Anelka typically needs five minutes or more just to get acquainted with the flow of the game, and Grant was asking too much of him to contribute something in that short a period of time. Grant also took off his best player on the night, Michael Ballack, for some unknown reason.

• Liverpool was harshly done by the officials. Chelsea got the benefit of almost every close call; Drogba went down at every chance he got and usually won a free kick, Chelsea clearly was offside on two or three occasions and it wasn’t spotted, and Liverpool had a great shout for a penalty after Michael Ballack appeared to play the ball with his arm in the box midway through the second half.

• Chelsea really lacked that spark of creativity necessary to steal a true goal at Anfield. Ballack was their best player, as I said, but didn’t seriously ever test Reina. I’m still unsure why he was replaced.

• Just how important were Fernando Torres’ two great chances that weren’t finished? The second was only a minute before Riise’s unfortunate own-goal, and going 2-0 up would’ve finished the game for good.

• In the end, 1-1 obviously is a flattering scoreline to Chelsea. The Blues were outplayed virtually all game and only a lucky own-goal at the death rescued them. Chelsea now has the advantage heading back to the Bridge next week, but Liverpool has to be encouraged by their own performance today. Take nothing away from Chelsea though; they had fate on their side tonight, and that can’t be underestimated.

Halftime Thoughts--Liverpool vs. Chelsea

• I miss Tommy Smyth and Derek Rae on the call. I’m assuming they’ll be working the Manchester United-Barcelona game tomorrow, but I’m not sure why they couldn’t do this game as well…

• The first shot on goal came nearly eight minutes in, and it was a relatively slow dribbler from Steven Gerrard. One shot in eight minutes, and a low-quality shot at that, isn’t exactly a good sign of things to come.

• Chelsea dominated possession in the first ten minutes, with Liverpool content to sit back and not waste energy chasing the ball around.

• Dirk Kuyt, of all players, had the best chance in the first quarter of an hour. Chelsea has looked absolutely woeful going forward thus far, relying on set pieces to pump balls into the box.

• Liverpool had the better of the second ten minutes, no question.

• Once again, Drogba just doesn’t look motivated to play, which is inexcusable seeing as this is a Champions League semifinal. Drogba won’t be at the Bridge next season, and has had a poor first half today.

• Good opportunity for Joe Cole right on 18 minutes; that obviously would’ve been an invaluable away goal for the Blues. A few inches taller and he may have connected with that slide.

• A second chance for Cole in the 21st minute went begging…that was a weak, weak stab at the ball. Get up, young man!

• Glad to see Tom Hicks in attendance today. The man shouldn’t be frightened off by the Scousers; he owns the club, he has every right to watch his team play. Surprised he and Gillett haven’t gone at it yet though!

• No penalty on the Drogba/Carragher incident in the 29th minute. Ball first, then man is legal; the referee made the correct decision.

• Lovely through ball from Gerrard to Torres in the 31st minute, good save from Cech, but Torres really should’ve done better and put Liverpool up 1-0. Best chance of the game went wasted.

• Another weak effort from Gerrard two minutes later; he’s certainly capable of pulling one out of the magic hat as we all know, but hasn’t come close yet today.

• Kuyt with the goal?!? Kuyt? We all know he works harder than anyone, but he doesn’t have much in the way of natural talent. Cool, cool finish though; must’ve made a guy like Torres proud.

• They said it would be like watching paint dry or grass grow, and aside from a few brief moments, they were right. Both teams are tactically sound and don’t give much away. Liverpool-1, Chelsea-0 – in all honestly, a fair scoreline.

Stay Tuned...

Make sure you check back here at halftime, and again at full-time, of today's Champions League semifinal first leg at Anfield. As I did in both games of the Liverpool-Arsenal tie, I'll have my halftime and post-match thoughts for you to undoubtedly pick apart.

For those of you want to see attractive, free-flowing soccer, this isn't the game for you. It's going to be a grind-it-out, slow-moving affair, with the winner likely only needing one goal to prevail.

My prediction: Liverpool-1, Chelsea-0, with a late goal from Fernando Torres the only thing separating the two sides. In next Wednesday’s return leg at Stamford Bridge, I’ve got a 1-1 draw, which, of course, would be enough for Liverpool to advance to their third Champions League final in four years.