Football GIF: Yaya Toure ‘Kicks’ Juan Mata, Slaps Him Round The Head, Gets Away Scott Free

Chris Wright

13th, December 2011

35 Comments

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.

GIF: Something Awful

Posted in Chelsea, GIFs, Hardmen, Man City

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35 Comments

  1. bob says:

    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

  2. Questionable says:

    poor Juan, hes ‘matta’ big enough fella to get physical with toure either and come out unscathed

  3. Futballsznob says:

    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.

  4. Ref says:

    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.

  5. Redskywalker says:

    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.

  6. daz says:

    just me who was pleased mata didnt go down like a little wuss.

  7. mike says:

    If that had happened to a barce player the whole team would have fallen down holding there faces

  8. Fredmeister says:

    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…

  9. tendon not is says:

    LMAO @ mike….its funny cuz its true.

  10. :) says:

    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.

  11. kenji says:

    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.

  12. kenji says:

    mata is white idiot! Yaya is black god!

  13. __wowza says:

    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.

  14. Jay says:

    Kenji you plonker. Don’t use descriptions like that

  15. fouldsy says:

    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!

  16. Sultan says:

    Where is the linesman ?????

  17. Miguel - NYC says:

    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.

  18. WildScotsman6 says:

    Shoulda just smacked him back. Player is gonna try be sneaky n’ that, be sneaky back, ten-fold.

  19. Brad says:

    Toure is an idiot, jealous mata is more successful at only age 22. And also a bigger idiot for leaving FCb for man shitty.

  20. Anonymous says:

    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.

  21. Andy says:

    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.

  22. HotSpur922 says:

    @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.

    • Chris says:

      @Hotspur922: I can assure you that we try to catch everything, but unfortunately some get through the screening process without us seeing them.

  23. perez cardenas says:

    It´s a dive by Mata , he should be kicked by all the players

  24. sloth says:

    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.

  25. theredflag says:

    ^^^

    It’s like “My Tram Experience” all over again….

  26. bobbie says:

    Wow! This is an amazing ‘screening process’ that WAATP’s has…

  27. bobbie says:

    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.

  28. Bear says:

    screening process seems to be working well

    cheers to mata for being one of the few honorable spaniards to refrain from melodramatic nonsense

  29. Redskywalker says:

    dam… that screening process seems to be letting a couple more in..^

    Kenji.. trolling hard as usual I see..

  30. tosin says:

    FA please do something about this yaya toure is stupid…

  31. Col says:

    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.

  32. Ahmed says:

    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?

  33. Robin says:

    @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?

  34. HotSpur922 says:

    Thank you Chris, as always this maintains to be a quality site.

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