Football GIF: Yaya Toure ‘Kicks’ Juan Mata, Slaps Him Round The Head, Gets Away Scott Free
By Chris Wright
There was an incident that was missed by referee Mark Clattenburg during the first half of Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Man City at the Bridge last night that has sparked a fair bit of debate in internet circles this morning, despite not really being mentioned in the national press, in which Yaya Toure both ‘kicked’ (‘nudged’ being a fairer assessment) Juan Mata as he sat on the turf then slapped the Spaniard around the head for good measure a few minutes later…
The video evidence is a little more damning…
The kick is much of a muchness, but Toure’s ‘playful’ slap was obviously and intentionally heavy-handed, thus warranting a straight red and a three-match ban in my book. ‘Raised hands’ and all that jazz.
For the record, Yaya went completely unpunished. Not even a dicky bird.
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yaya toure was an absolute embarrassment last night. At another point during the game he even tried to rake a Chelsea player down the calf. disgraceful
poor Juan, hes ‘matta’ big enough fella to get physical with toure either and come out unscathed
it’s quite loosely related to this story, but
Have you ever seen such a card-happy referee before?! (Mexican apertura final, Tigres-Santos):
http://futballsznob.blog.hu/2011/12/13/ilyet_meg_nem_lattak
Infamous Mexican referee, Marc Antonio Rodrguez aka. “Chiquidrácula” (officiated 4 World Cup games in 2006 and 2010, he was the one who sent off Cahill vs the Germans) shows two yellow cards, at once!
He just loves showing his cards. During the game he even gave a yellow card for a wonderful bicycle kick goal, adjudged dangerous play. And 3 reds, the first in the 11th minute.
Toure is idiot who don’t deserve shit. Can’t even act as a pro. Whenever in press always blabering about being a good muslim, together with his brother.
That Toure incident hacked me off alot last night. He’s an embarrassment. Mata ran rings around them last night.
Re: the Mexican ref^ – yet another ref f*****g up the beautiful game.
just me who was pleased mata didnt go down like a little wuss.
If that had happened to a barce player the whole team would have fallen down holding there faces
Hes a good player but last night and in Europe especially you can see why Barca got rid. Hes not skillful enough to be a world class midfielder and switches off sometimes in defense. He just stopped running after meireles for the first goal and Ramieres and Mata made him look daft.
He still dominates at Prem level and is still a great player as he is MASSIVE and can play. But when Barca preferred Keita to him that says something…
LMAO @ mike….its funny cuz its true.
totally agree with mike and daz! respect to him for just taking it on the chin. as said a barca player would have to be stretchered off the pitch while the rest of the team surrounded the referee and harassed him.
the ref did the right thing not to punished yaya coz yaya is god! how can a human can punish god? you tell me! mata is evil coz he provoked yaya. if i am the ref, i should give red card to mata that evil.
mata is white idiot! Yaya is black god!
kenji: ya done now?
everyone else with a brain: this is the worst case for people who want to make a pro diving argument. if mata went to the deck holding his face after that slap, this would’ve gotten more consideration. he took it like a man, and no one bats a fuckin lash.
Kenji you plonker. Don’t use descriptions like that
kenji, yaya toure is one of the most overated players ever. he’s fat, slow, and he’s clearly a horrible, dirty cheat. and dont be a racist!
Where is the linesman ?????
The worst part to me, is that none of the Chelsea players stood up for their best player. Where the f*ck is the rest of the team.
Yaya is a great player, but i think his status has gone to his head. What a shame.
Shoulda just smacked him back. Player is gonna try be sneaky n’ that, be sneaky back, ten-fold.
Toure is an idiot, jealous mata is more successful at only age 22. And also a bigger idiot for leaving FCb for man shitty.
Yaya Toure does not slap him, he try to apologive him by touching Mata’s head. But Mata misunderstood Yaya Toure and react aggrasively by push his hand harshly makes it looks like Yaya Toure slapping him. Please pople, don’t argue about this small matter.
I thought that too actually ^ I think Yaya goes to ruffle his hair a bit and Mata bats his hand away. Not too much in it.
@Chris,
you e-mailed me last week explaining why you let some of my comments show and some not.
I’d like to point out Kenji and Brad have both made racist comments yet they are there to be seen by all.
do yourself, me and the rest of WAATP a favor and have some integrity, delete their racist posts.
@Hotspur922: I can assure you that we try to catch everything, but unfortunately some get through the screening process without us seeing them.
It´s a dive by Mata , he should be kicked by all the players
I think the nudge/kick was worth a yellow, but the “slap” seemed like he was trying to apologize and Mata (reasonably) responded with hostility.
^^^
It’s like “My Tram Experience” all over again….
Wow! This is an amazing ‘screening process’ that WAATP’s has…
To be honest, we don’t need to see these incidents punished. Yaya just needs a good talking to and be told to get on with the game. Punishing harmless taps will only encourage players to fall on the floor at the slightest knock. These two incidents weren’t malicious, just petty.
We don’t want the Premier League to turn into a continently fall on the floor free for all.
screening process seems to be working well
cheers to mata for being one of the few honorable spaniards to refrain from melodramatic nonsense
dam… that screening process seems to be letting a couple more in..^
Kenji.. trolling hard as usual I see..
FA please do something about this yaya toure is stupid…
It’s hardly a disgraceful incident and if you watch/play at least a match per week then you’d be used to it but much respect to Mata for not going down like a sack of faeces.
If I correctly remember Arsenal were punished by banning Alex Song who step on Barton during Newcastle match. FA after seeing Video banned Song for three matches, what happened to this action did the FA not see it?
@Ahmed I believe the FA cannot take action because the ref said he saw the incident and did not punish it on the pitch. That seems odd, since he’s clearly looking the other way in the gif!
Is “ruffling the hair” really a conciliatory gesture? Seems more condescending to me! Regardless, players should not be raising their hands to other players’ heads/faces, whatever their motivation, there is absolutely no need. What’s wrong with a handshake/back-slap?
Thank you Chris, as always this maintains to be a quality site.