Went to the City v Everton game today. Very, very strange refereeing from Howard Webb today. City are obviously a more talented team than Everton but I lost a lot of respect for David Silva today. He is the football equivalent of Sam Tomkins, determined to cheat whenever possible. He was diving today when players were a good foot or two away from him. Whenever anyone did put a tackle in on him, he did the rapid spin on the floor every holding his shin, even though none of the tackles came anywhere close to hurting him. With the class he's got, why does he need to descend to that level? Webb's performance was shocking, clearly focused on protecting City when he's meant to be impartial.
The Phil Neville booking was ridiculous. That was right near us and it was utterly stupid. At worst he accidentally knocks his heels, but I don't think there was any physical contact at all, hence his bemused look. Silva's breakdancing didn't help. Cahill's booking was also very harsh and I'm not so sure the stamp on his shin was exactly accidental either.
Then Webb goes and really winds me up by letting the worst challenge of the day go without even so much as a warning. Balotelli deliberately raking his studs down the back of Jagielka's leg as he cleared was a really sly challenge and he ignored it. Then Saha skins Kompany right on the edge of the box with a full on body check, a tackle Adrian Morley would have been proud of, and he sees no wrong in it.
If City are going to win the league they'll have to play better than today. Nasri was never in the game and they didn't come close to breaking Everton down until Balotelli's fluke. His shot was awful, heading straight for Tim Howard. Yet after the deflection he peels away like he's Messi and he casually bent it into the corner. It would be interesting to see City without Silva at the moment, he is everything to them, a fabulous player when not trying to cheat his way through the game.
