Football Food For Thought / Frank Gregan / 09 December 2009 /

Frank Lampard missed a late penalty against Manchester City on Saturday afternoon which cost his side at least a point. Frank Gregan wonders whether the blame lay with the England man or the linesman who failed to spot an infringement.

There were two significant penalty misses at the weekend. Chelsea's Frank Lampard and Tottenham's Jermaine Defoe both failed from the spot and cost their clubs points in their respective battles for Premier League supremacy and a top four finish. Elsewhere Cesc Fabregas of Arsenal and Dindane of Portsmouth also missed spot-kicks though their respective sides went on to win anyway.

Lampard's miss was the major talking point once the dust had settled. It was a tremendous save from Shay Given although the following question has to be asked: what was Howard Webb's assistant looking at? Once the penalty is awarded the assistant patrolling that half heads towards the goal and takes a view from the flank. His job is to stand about 5 metres away and watch nothing but the actions of the goalkeeper, ensuring that he does not venture off his line.

Lampard does seem to favour the strike low to the 'keeper's right. It is a much easier technique to hit across the body, it's a natural 'laces' strike whereas it is much more difficult to power the ball to the open side which leads to a temptation to play the lazy side foot.

The Chelsea man struck the penalty well but Given was down the line before the kick and narrowed the angle superbly, but illegally. Given pushed off with the right foot and gained at least a yard of forward momentum before he continued his motion with a forward dive. He was probably at least two yards off his line as he made the save.

Technical drawing is a bit of an art (pun intended) but you don't have to be Sir Christopher Wren to work out that the goal is eight yards wide, Given is one yard wide, therefore Lampard had a target area of three and a half yards to Given's right. That is from twelve yards out, by the time Given made the save the distance the ball had travelled was only ten yards, perhaps a little less.

Therefore applying and combining the Pythagoras and Baye's (probability) theorem, we can determine that the angle had been narrowed to such a degree that Lampard had............err a much smaller target! The 'keeper coming off his line is one of those laws of the game that tend to get overlooked in the heat of the moment but the assistant referee should have done better - he let Chelsea down.

Set-piece preparation is a common place before any game in professional football. With all the media coverage these days, the statistical analyst at every Premier League club will be able to tell you what percentage of the time Frank Lampard goes low to the 'keepers right. It will be a high figure but Given stayed focused, didn't get done with the 'eyes' and once he had gone the right way he was always favourite to win the contest: helped in no small part by the two yards he'd advanced down the line. It would have taken an Alan Shearer-esque top corner strike to beat him.

Manchester City had a great week, securing a place in the semi finals of the Carling Cup and picking up the scalp of many pundits' champions elect. It will be enough to keep the wolves from Mark Hughes's door for a little while but they need to kick on and make sure that this is not a false dawn.

They are [3.8] to lift the Carling Cup and a very big [14.5] to win the FA Cup. Mark Hughes will treat both competitions with the utmost respect as he tries to bring some much needed silverware to Eastlands. The recommendation is to back them to win the FA Cup, they will be much shorter if they reach the last eight and an in-play trade looks on the cards.

As for the penalties, the assistant referees need to watch Shay Given, Frank Lampard needs to vary his placement and Jermaine Defoe needs to hand the ball over to Robbie Keane!

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