Football Sports Desk

If you'd told Chelsea fans watching the 3-0 defeat against Arsenal on September 24th that 11 games later their team would be 9 points ahead of the afore mentioned rampant Gunners, AND 6 pts clear of everyone else… they'd have probably thought you completely nuts.
But as of December 20th that is the Premiership picture.

We're Talking Points

In midweek Marko Arnautovic (a forward) was sent of for a nasty high tackle against Southampton. Four days later Moussa Sissoko, with an identical challenge is only booked, and then he provides the pass for the goal that sees Spurs narrowly beat Burnley. 
Marcos Rojo previously had made a couple of two-footed tackles in matches that saw him only yellow carded, when Red could have reasonably been the outcome. On Saturday Jamie Vardy (a forward) was sent off for a similar two-footed lung. Then last night at Everton Ross Barkley was only booked for a dreadful challenge on Jordan Henderson.
Along side these incidents the tame trip on Joe Ledley by Deigo Costa (a forward), which received the exact same punishment as all the mentioned yellow cards does appear to indicate a different attitude from referees towards midfield/defender tackles and those of your strikers.
Oh well, that's football - as they say!

Humour

Had to laugh as West Ham fans awarding the Man of the Match accolade to the 'post' against Hull City at the weekend in their 1-0 win. Three times he (the post) intervened to save the ball entering the net and clear it to safety. Unlike the Everton post who only succeeded in teeing up a tap in for Liverpool's Sadio Mane to score an injury time winner at Goodison. 

Same old

Nice to see some things never really change. Arsene Wenger bleating on about referee decisions that went against his team while completely forgetting the late handball goal they scored at (luckless) Burnley earlier in the season. 

Africa Cup of Nations  

This all to regular tournament kicks off this coming 14th January in Gabon.
A number of players from Premiership teams will be away for a minimum of 3 weeks. For example Sadio Mane wont be there to collect rebounds off posts and West Ham, Everton and Sunderland will lose the services of 4 squad members. While Leicester have 5 players involved in the tournament. For wondering Chelsea fans - somehow Nigeria didn't qualify!