Every season there’s a game that you play where you are utterly f*cked by circumstances beyond your control. It hurts. It’s unfair. It stings. That game was last night against Wolves.
The game hinged on a very poor decision from a very poor referee.
David Luiz was adjudged to have fouled Willian José when his foot clipped the Brazilian’s knee. Craig Pawson, desperate to give the penalty, was backed up by VAR and he issued a red card, going against double jeopardy ruling. This is Mark Clattenburg on the incident.
David Luiz was incorrectly sent off after giving away a penalty at Wolves — it should have been a yellow card.
The Arsenal defender made accidental contact with Willian Jose as he ran clear on goal and that caused the forward to fall. No one can dispute it was a foul and the award of a penalty was the right decision.
However, a law exists that protects teams from conceding a penalty and losing a player to a red card if a genuine attempt to play the ball has been made.
It was a horrible decision and it completely ruined the progressive football we’d been playing for the previous 46 minutes.
The penalty was scored and shortly after kick-off in the second half, Moutinho let off a screamer that beat Bernd Leno from about 25 yards. Saka and Partey should have done more, but really, it’s quite harsh to apportion blame, the strike was lethal.
Things got worse for Arsenal, Bernd Leno, an absolute rock for us, misjudged a long ball and was sent off when he handled outside the area. Matters were made worse when we gave the ball boy keeper gloves and played out the game with an amateur between the sticks.
We lost. It was rough. The game shone an light on a harsh reality… Premier League referees are awful.
I don’t want to be a conspiracist, but simply put, if you cannot make good decisions when you have the luxury of technology to support you, there needs to be a change. Arsene Wenger had it right, he said that no one wants to have this conversation, but when it comes to the World Cup, FIFA don’t exactly line-up for our referees. How could they be good, the managing director for PGMOL is Mike Riley, a bad referee famed for incompetence is leading them.
PGMOL lacks accountability. The standard of officiating in the UK is terrible. This isn’t mere gripping, it’s fact. Technology is used poorly, bad refs keep ruining important games, and there seems to be no one competent in charge to drive improvement.
Back to Arsenal. David Luiz needs to take some accountability. If you know the refs are shit, don’t take risks. If he were a driver, he’d be the guy going 80mph on a country road, 3 inches behind the car in front… chances are, that sort of motoring is going to get punished at some point. It was, and it happens too often. Still, the simple fact is, history doesn’t matter here, we were totally fucked by a shit referee… again.
However, let’s put some things in perspective, especially for all the ghouls that showed up after the game to condemn the project.
Arsenal are going places under Arteta. We all had our doubts before Christmas, but the transformation on the pitch has been nothing short of electric. If you can’t see it, it’s because you don’t want to see it.
That first half was the best half of football we’ve see all season. The energy was outrageous, we looked powerful, we pressed with intent. The attacking football at times was sublime. We’ve gone from one power-play to a whole plethora of options when we move forward.
Thomas Partey made amends for his average performance at the weekend. He was world-class. He is the balance between attack and defence. His instincts for the game are unreal. He was everywhere. Can you believe that people said they wouldn’t take him on a free? Embarrassing carry-on.
Bukayo Saka, you absolute beauty. He’s so, so important to us. He dominated in attack. His finishing was off, but my oh my is it clear that we missed him for the United game.
Xhaka was very impressive. Cedric had another good game. Lacazette played that false 9 role like a demon.
Nicolas Pepe… OH MY… is it starting to look like I bet on the wrong opinion. He should live on the left. He was unplayable at times. He is working like his career depends on it. His body language was excellent, his desire to be involved felt different, and he showed up with a goal. He won the ball back with the press, he held of challenges, retained balance, and smashed home with a clinical finish. A thing of beauty.
We’re shaping up nicely. Every issue we’ve had with Arteta is being resolved one game at a time. We’re still defensively resolute, even with 9 men, just look at what happened to Southampton. We’re getting better and better in attack, some of the football was scintillating. We are starting to look elite even without our best starting 11. Our bench had Martinelli, Gabriel, Auba and Odegaard… true strength in depth. We’re also rattling the naysayers… which makes me happy. Too many Arsenal fans hate it when we’re doing well, a shame, but the reality of the modern-day superbore.
A bad day at the office, but plenty to be pleased about.
This season is done. That’s terrible. It wasn’t on the bingo card this year. So we have to move on, we have to look to next season, we have to start thinking about how we can best used the remaining months as a preseason to a normal year in 2022.
We were robbed. 3 points would have been ours had it not been for that pesky ref. Time to show we have the strength to come back from it at the weekend.
Onwards and upwards, ignore the melts, we’re progressing very nicely.
Who says, he could not see The Wolves goal was coming was actually watching a different game and not have been watching Arsenal for long.The previous game was the same we scored first and lost with 11 men after them losing their best striker. Time Up I saw your comment yesterday and was feeling slightly the same about the conceding. For all those long passes partey attempted. Some of the passes went straight to the opposition and they were able to use that and pass to the flanks. I don’t think we played bad, but we did switch off on… Read more »
“Nicolas Pepe… OH MY… is it starting to look like I bet on the wrong opinion. He should live on the left.” Have you not noticed, Pepe looks far, FAR MORE dangerous when he’s not pinned to the wing??? When he get to come inside, he is much more of a threat!! Notice he scored with his right foot too. It is clear to me that the was being told to stick to the side lines, which is completely unnatural to him and that he needed to be played as a wide forward not as a winger!! What is also… Read more »
Who has Bednarek in their fantasy team go on own up?
“However a sending off in todays Premier League is 90% guaranteed to end up in a loss for the team with 10 men” That is why it is so dangerous to have a system open to abuse without accountability. Like it or not, you have to protect against the risk of outside influences affecting match results. With impunity, that is a risk. Bad tackles that endanger players are one thing but there are so many soft sending off’s and second yellows it is starting to get silly. We have to be very careful we keep the integrity in the game.… Read more »
It’s not down to Luiz or Leno. Referee blew it up for us. Had it just been a penalty and a yellow, I’m pretty certain we would have scored couple more in second half.
Lots of if, and could.. As an Arsenal fan, I am living in it from a long time.
AFC
Is it?
These referees are shite because they are not held accountable.
Clubs should raise these issues and the authorities have to look at the inconsistencies that are ruining the game.
There seems to be no logic anymore. A top referee sees things and reacts instinctively. He also knows that there has to be some leeway in the decision making.
Many of these refs are up there own backsides and need a reality check.
It’s about time clubs started to act and push for change.
Can’t come soon enough as far as I’m concerned.
Good point AFC, accountability is crucial.
However,
If laymen and fans realise this, how can seasoned pros like Luiz, Xhaka and even the managers like Arteta not spot the apparent danger in going down to 10 men due to a lack of concentration or misapplication?
As a manger one of the first things I’d impress on my team is to avoid stupid red cards because of the handicap it gives.
“Our first half dominance against a shockingly poor Wolves wasn’t that dominant, which is why we lost over 90 minutes.“ Have to agree with Jamie here. Didn’t watch the game in real time but after having checked some of the comments from various fans , including Pedro’s, I expected to see a total domination by Arsenal which it was not. Arsenal started stronger which was a departure from the previous games but faded after 30 minutes where wolves, who have been the worst form team in the league dominated. It brings to mind that Eddie Murphy bit how if you’re… Read more »
Bringing up the Riley performance from the worst ever refereeing game in football history every time a single bad call goes against you cheapens that atrocious Riley performance.
Samesong I played semi pro football in the late70s early 80s and when I played that wouldn’t have been a foul of that there is no doubt but the point is that using the 2020/21 version of the laws it is. I love the idea of ex players being either officials. As we see time after time is the pundits who almost ex pros have no idea what the current law as or indeed interpretation of them is. I do wish that people would stop trying to suggest there was intent or was it accidental that in the current published… Read more »
Graham62, I just wonder what would happen if we all tried to control the selection process. I am 100% within you, something has to change. Two games yesterday with shocking decisions. Fernandez the weekend. Tyrone Mings and the offside advantage against City and he and a lot of players saying they didn’t understand the new rules. In Italy Ronaldo came from an offside position but unlike the City goal they disallowed it. How many times do you watch games and see inconsistency in decision making and a misinterpretation of the rules, while those of us sitting at home who have… Read more »
On a lighter note – I must must say That Pedro Neto looks like a baller!!
He’s ripped us must of the times I’ve seen him play against us. He absolutely roasted bellerin, one time there were two of our players in front of him… and he just ghosted through them like he was playing Super Mario Bros or something.
Would love to have him at AFC
In fact, as much as it was easy to utterly despise Wolves yesterday…. to be fair to them, their recruitment/scouting team needs to be poached!!
they’ve done excellent work in the transfer market in recent times
Terralooon I too played at senior level. Reserve team football and spent a spell in the Isthmian league until a bad tackle ended my career in my mid-twenties. My Uncle was a referee at a decent standard and tried to get me to do it. I wasn’t interested, too much abuse and aggravation I would have chinned someone. That’s the problem. It would make sense to get ex-players in but then you listen to them defending cheating as either being clever or somehow having the right to fall over and you realise it wouldn’t change. They wouldn’t do it anyway,… Read more »
Mr J
Yes, Neto looks a very good player.
He knows the Portugese market and he’s bought in some excellent players from there. Jota is now at Liverpool and was doing well and I love Jimeniz, wish him well, a very classy striker.
Reminds me of Wenger in the early years when he knew the French market and bought in some superb players for bugger all. I’m surprised more MAnagers aren’t bringing in players from Portugal, they adapt well to the EPL.
“Refs should use common sense instead of applying laws as written “ goes one theory. That’s only a good idea if you believe common sense is common. Firmino handled the ball in the build up to a Liverpool goal and the goal was cancelled out. But it was Dier who handled it first and was clearly fouling Firmino while grappling with him from behind with both fists full of Firmino’s shirt. The ball landed on Firmino’s arm momentarily only because he was struggling for balance, because he was being fouled, and he gained no advantage from this whatsoever. Should the… Read more »
“As far as I can see, the contact was made by the backwards motion of the attackers leg, on to Luis knee. Does that mean it was a penalty? Haven’t got a clue.”
Given that it’s impossible to run without that backward motion of the leg then Luiz impeded the natural movement of the forward, hence the penalty.
Luiz,in any case, should be phased out. We need younger defenders we need to play more so that they can be match fit.
Great piece, Pedro
If VAR was promoted as the way to get the right decisions and it continually makes the wrong decisions, what is the point of VAR? Okay, it works with goal line decisions, but nothing else.
Looking ahead to the summer IMO Arteta won’t need to add much. With Pepe coming good, AMN, Willock, etc returning improved, plus Saliba, a couple of high calibre players should be enough.
Arsenal are now top of the league in terms of red cards and 8th in yellows.
They are 20th in terms of fouls per game.
By comparison Tottenham are 4th in fouls per game and 17th in cards awarded.
Explain how there’s no bias.
If we want consistency, and surely any team that has high pretensions should, Luiz does not play. Pedro’s car analogy is well placed. He should have known better. However, to send him of for that bit of accidental contact is just clueless. It totally ruined a good game. Having said that, we need to be more ruthless and put teams to the sword by taking our chances when we get them. We move on. So many positives. Can’t wait to see Odegard play.
Nothing accidental about deliberately running into the back of an attacking player.
Tera
Could you imagine like a Roy Keane refereeing a game and a player telling him to f off!
That wouldn’t end nice.
I don’t think Ex pros would be interested in refereeing at the highest level or lower leagues either.
Maybe sitting in VAR room would be better for them. Can you imagine a ex player giving the
wrong decision the amount of criticism they would get.
I would like to see more younger referees who are coming into the game and learning from the bottom upwards.
CT – We’re obviously not very good at the dark arts!
Take Luiz yesterday – not mailcious just plain stupid and clumsy. As we get rid of these brain dead players I expect those stats to change. Most fouls are petty ones that break up the flow of the game and you don’t tend to get cards for those. Compare that to Xhaka’s challenges for example that are just asking for a card.
AFC
When I played under 16 football, a long ole while ago, I regularly came across a player who se father and brother were professional footballers and this lad went in to become a PL ref. Long since retired.
The reason he became a ref was he was not quite good enough, a bit short and short sighed ( the irony) he wore contact lenses.
VAR was supposed to work in unison with refereeing, but sadly its made them meek and scared to make the tough calls. You have the undeniable feeling that Paulson knew better but was hoping that VAR would bail him out.
Instead of being an aid, VAR has become a crutch and is now a beacon of the ineptitude of officiating. The referees don’t deserve sympathy, they deserve a swift kick up their backsides for bringing the game into the next generation of repute.
The biggest problem i have with yesterday is Luiz being on the pitch at all, even if he didnt touch the guy, he’s still a waste of space. His discipline record is atrocious for us and seems to attract penalties against us. He just needs to fuck off asap
andy
“Given that it’s impossible to run without that backward motion of the leg then Luiz impeded the natural movement of the forward, hence the penalty.”
I don’t think anyone who’s reasonable thinks that the pen shouldn’t have been awarded it’s the red card as well that is going overboard.
Henry19…..how can you tell it was deliberate?
“Arsenal are now top of the league in terms of red cards and 8th in yellows.They are 20th in terms of fouls per game”
You’re not going to give away many fouls when you’re not competing for the ball.
Redbro
And here’s the point how do you know it wasn’t?
That’s why intent disappeared from the law on fouls because other that the perpetrator no one knows
Marc if it was deemed a foul them it must be a red card
Terraloon
What ever happened to the double jeopardy rule?
Marc, only applies when the player makes a genuine attempt to win the ball.
On a conference call listening to some truly terrible modern jazz. Something else I’d ban.
‘Arsenal are now top of the league in terms of red cards and 8th in yellows.
They are 20th in terms of fouls per game.’
Is this true?
Why cant VAR have an audio broadcast, what are the FA trying to hide?
andy
But what if the player isn’t making any attempt at a tackle? Not saying it wasn’t a pen and a yellow card but surely the “no attempt at winning the ball” argument is for blatant just take them out “tackles” and not a coming together?
Yes Pedro, its true,
Arsenal commit an average of 9.2 fouls a game, the next closest in Man City at 9.6
@AFC Forever
Agreed – I had even forgotten about Jota. I wish Arsenal could still operate like that… dropping 70m on a player really isn’t our forte.
“Where a player commits an offence against an opponent within their own penalty area which denies an opponent an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and the referee awards a penalty kick, the offender is cautioned if the offence was an attempt to play the ball; in all other circumstances (e.g. holding, pulling, pushing, no possibility to play the ball etc.) the offending player must be sent off.”
But that’s my point “e.g. holding, pulling, pushing” are all deliberate acts I really don’t think Luiz was planning some genius plan of taking him down without giving a foul away.
“Why cant VAR have an audio broadcast, what are the FA trying to hide?“
Lucky for you I have that audio.
-VAR to Mike Riley: “The Wolves’ owners are offering £50k if we send Luiz off.”
-Riley to VAR: “What’s Arsenal counteroffer to keep him on.”
-VAR to Riley: “ Arsenal’s owners can’t be reached.”
Hypothetically, a player goes down injured in the box, ball is cleared and comes back and the striker trips up on that player injured, does that mean that the injured player is sent off for denying a goal scoring opportunity? Following the rule book is fine but there needs to be some common sense which prevails
“Arsenal are going places under Arteta”
That actually made me laugh out loud. Which places, Pedro? 8-12th would be my guess.
Tom
It’d more likely be:
Mike Riley to VAR – Our Leader (Fergie) has ordered you to send off any Arsenal player at any opportunity
VAR to Mike Riley – We obey our mighty Leader
Tom
That is exactly what would have happened..
Rugby does the VAR best, football is miles behind in the implementation of VAR
There’s a peculiar type of “ Arsenal fan”.Melts as Pedro refers to them who seem to take great delight in any opportunity to denigrate there club why? If they feel Arteta is the wrong man for the rebuild.pray tell us who can do it better? For under the £200/300 million plus they’d be looking for? I’m dying to know who they are? What is their great qualities?They will guarantee success in a season? Really?They will deal with the lack of finances & deadwood we’ve been burdened with? They will get us top 4 ,straight away,no question.Who are these managers who… Read more »
“This season is done.” This really angers and annoys me at the same time. If the season is done with almost half the games still to go then Arteta should be done as well. He’s the reason we’re in 10th place. He’s the reason we’re (likely) not getting European football next season. He’s the reason we’re out of the FA Cup competition. He’s the reason guys like Luiz, Xhaka, and Willian are at the club. If you were asked before the season started whether it’d be okay to finish 10th and for the manager to keep his job, would you… Read more »
Pedro
This is useful, stats on fouls and cards:
http://www.footcharts.co.uk/index.cfm?task=basics_fouls
http://www.footcharts.co.uk/index.cfmtask=basics_cards&league=E0&venue=T&season=03/02/2021
AFC – great 10 point plan for future refereeing standards.Alas it’s so good you just know the prem will never do it.
Marc-spot in re Var.The cat would really be out of the bag with the PGMOL if they were forced to be “ miked up” such as Rugby union where the fans can hear their reasoning.Let me tell you.The average ref would be over to the monitor to cover their back every 5 mins!
Upstate
Who said that? Most likely laying down some excuses for Arteta and paving the way for the next round of excuses.
Upstate-pray,tell us who the messiah is?
Kris
Which is why ref’s are useless. I’ll bet you common sense would suddenly be applied if that had been Harry Maguire.
The shit refs and the corrupt PGMOL always have it against arsenal
We were robbed again
Just like that good goal papa sok scored against Palace only for the rookie Aussie VAR ref to rule it out and deemed Callum chambers had fouled a Palace player in the build-up
There was no contact whatsoever!
It cost us 2 points that should have seen us qualify to the champions league
I didn’t see any outrageous calls for investigation then and I wouldn’t expect it now !
Marc
“Who said that?”
Pedro in his post.
Uwot
Are you saying there’s no other manager in world football who could do a job without demanding £300 million?
That sounds identical to the argument made by the fuck wits on why we couldn’t get rid of Wenger.
See what you’ve done Pedro?
Upstate
Mate you really need to ignore anything Pedro says re Arteta. He’s less objective when it comes to Arteta than a 13 year old girl is on her favourite boy band!
“Rugby does the VAR best, football is miles behind in the implementation of VAR”
This.
Breaking:
After discussions with Arteta and the Arsenal legal team, they have decided to appeal against the red card decision.
The idea of former PL players as refs is an interesting one.
Souness or Keane in that role would’ve been entertaining.
Tom, they were training ex-prisoners for Sunday League in England
No Marc.Not saying that.Just would like to know who are the better managers we could attract that prob wouldn’t require that sort of budget to upgrade on Arteta.Who are they?
Arsenal are definitely treated harsher than other teams when it comes to giving yellow cards and sendings off. I’ve seen it happen too many times. We tug a player,in the slightest, card’s out. I watched our player get pulled back , saw Michael Oliver reach into his pocket automatically, only to pause then take out the spray, and not book the player. This after he had not long ago booked Bellerin for a tug. Weasel faced cheating cunt. Or the ref who booked our player for pointing out, he should have shown the opposition a yellow! It’s way too much… Read more »
Uwot, you have to ask a more pointed question… what would you be upgrading right now?
Defence is amongst the best in the league.
Attacking football is really starting to get exciting
We’re starting to see big improvements in players
Players are all bought in
We’ve just cleared out the deadwood
Who is doing better right now?
Carlo? Mourinho? Nuno? Who else were we linked to that is doing better?
Uwot
Jardim, Allegri, Rafa … I’d be okay with Sarri as well. Arteta doesn’t cut it and we’re just wasting time with him. We’re likely going to be in 10-12th place again by the same time next year so might as well cut our losses now, and move forward.
How many of these referees have actually played the game?
If you’ve played to a reasonable level, you have a feel for things.
Personally, I think VAR should be monitored/controlled by ex-players.
One things for sure, you wouldn’t have decisions being reviewed for 5 minutes from 200 different camera angles.
Imagine Roy Keane drawing all those lines.
It wouldn’t be necessary.
30 second reviews max.
Jardim, Allegri, Rafa
😂😂😂
Graham, I don’t think you need to have played the game. This is an England specific thing.
“Carlo? Mourinho? Nuno? Who else were we linked to that is doing better?”
A bit silly to list managers/teams that are still ahead of us in the table, with 2-3 games in hand.
Graham
Yes, 30 seconds tops.
VAR is taking the game away from fans. I preferred controversy without VAR because it’s easy for a referee to miss something on the field but no excuse for VAR. At least the game was exciting.
Now we face the prospect of hanging around for 5 minutes while some computer geek with a degree in the Lord of the Rings, strokes his beard while producing a graphic that measures to the tiniest fraction or millimetre; Jesus, how has it come to this?
‘ N one is saying he took out the attacker‘’
But that’s exactly what u said
‘to do was attempt a decent tackle without taking the player out
Basic comprehension
Copied from the Telegraph Arsenal’s rough justice at Wolves on Tuesday night was a great example of an evergreen quandary in football analysis: to what extent can isolated incidents be siphoned off from a team’s performance? Are mistakes random aberrations or the result of underlying problems? Can a team have two men sent off, lose a lead away from home and be said to have ‘played well’? Your answer will be decided by whether you grant more weight to process or outcome. The result is clearly of primary importance, or else why do we bother keeping score and tallying up… Read more »
“Carlo? Mourinho? Nuno? Who else were we linked to that is doing better?”
Aren’t, like, two of those three above doing better than us in the league??
The one who isn’t just done the double on us?!
andy
We may not be good at Dark arts but the bias is very clear.
You can’t be top for red cards and bottom for making fouls, even if you are as dumb as they come.
The level of officiating needs to improve in England. There’s a reason there are so few, if any English refs officiating at Fifa and Uefa competitions.
“You can’t be top for red cards and bottom for making fouls, even if you are as dumb as they come.”
You can with Super Xhaka!
Sorry but don’t see any of those as a massive upgrade on where we are or where they are,at present.Maybe it will be obvious by seasons end.But I remain to be convinced.
Pedro Yes it is an England specific thing. Our refereeing is looked down on in the continent. One of the biggest problems is the fact that we think English football is somehow superior. The edict for English referees has always been to let the game flow and for physical challenges to be encouraged. Challenges that would be deemed as fouls on the continent are ignored here. They didn’t want us ruining the English game. That is why the powers that be decided not to have any of our referees at their World Cup tournament, simply referee differently. Pires said how… Read more »
Last season, who was top for yellow cards.
Surprise , surprise ….Arsenal
Who was top for red cards .
Arsenal
Marc
Xhaka has really been good since the turn of the year.
I think he is benefiting from the improved movement ahead of him and the better balance we have.
I had to laugh yesterday, imagining the look on the faces of the Xhaka bullies as he made those two drag backs. We need webcams, that would have been very funny.
Arsenal should and would be in the top 4 under a different manager.
Honestly, it’s always a bad idea to run across the legs of a player bearing for your gool…in the penalty box.
Forget VAR or all the other conversations
Luiz is an accident waiting to happen.
Every 4-5 games, he will do something daft.
Diss
You are posting the same nonsense again. Using this as an axe to grind about David Luiz is farcical. Take a look again and tell me, in all honestly, that you genuinely believe he ran across the player’s legs. Either your eyesight is appalling or you are just making things up:
https://twitter.com/DaleJohnsonESPN/status/1356926186627170304/photo/2
It seems the only people questioning the correct penalty and sending off decision are fantasists who believe we are heading in the right direction.
Diss, I think that’s right… a mistake always waits in the wings. Though, this one, was very, very harsh.
*bearing towards your goal
N17 with his customary hourly Arteta out Banner wave !
ArsenalTruth Despite the slim advantage, the Gunners were cruising and coping well with Wolves’ meager threat, until David Luiz cursed his teammates once more by conceding his sixth penalty and third red card in his short Arsenal career. Lots of arguments on this one, but for me it’s pretty cut and dried – the Brazilian fucked up. He’d pushed too high up the pitch; Willian Jose was released and beat him for pace. Entering the penalty area, Luiz ran across the forward touching his left foot with his right knee just prior to Willian Jose pulling the trigger. Whether Jose… Read more »
So Arsenal has the highest number of red cards awarded against them, and amongst the highest number of yellow cards, despite committing the fewest fouls. When it comes to their treatment of Arsenal players’ infractions -whether major or minor- referees are like fanatical Jesuit monks rigorously enforcing the rules against non-believers during the Spanish Inquisition. Fouls against? “Yeah, whatever…..Fernandes/[insert player name] didn’t really mean it. He’s a top, top guy.” Meanwhile, Man U players get treated like Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. Gods amongst men, their every misdemeanor glossed over, their every complaint assiduously checked using all the angles known to… Read more »
Mr.J, if your argument is that you want to change managers for 2 points, I’d say your argument is a bit weak.
AFC
Why is nonsense?
Because it doesn’t agree with you?
Keep up your refereeing conspiracy agitation
Better still why don’t you help deliver Arsenal’s appeal to the red card in person.
If Luiz wasn’t trying to make an attempt to play the ball, why is he running along the back of the players legs?
Running across the back of the legs is just like leaving a leg out in the box- the attacker will use the leg to simulate contact.
It’s not a big surprise we have the most red cards when you have players like Xhaka, Luiz and not to mention Mustafi in the team.
Henry19,
Newsflash: Mustafi is gone, and has hardly played for us this season.
Diss
You flip flop more than Gandhis sandals.
I can only give you one piece of advice; if you wear glasses get your eyes checked.
Henry19
A consummate arsenal fan
Doesn’t even know who’s in the squad
I have lost count of the number of names of managers from people on here who’m they want to replace Arteta.
They are like tumbleweed blowing through.
Including Hasenhüttl !
Bergkamp, imagine the rage if we’d conceded 9 goals for the second time?
Or we were playing Allegri football?
Or we dropped Arteta to bring in Rafa B?
Staggering views on here.
I think this should be the end of Luiz bring a first teamer for Arsenal. It should be Holding, Gabriel and Mari as top 3 choices with Luiz being the 4th, if not 5th ( behind Chambers).
The defensive improvement is more down to the system and manager than the personnel.
None more than Golf being some kind of Elite Status thing ? WTF !
AFC
I’ll give you one piece of advice
Stop pretending that you run the blog and let other opinions stand without your sanctimonious bull shit.
BS. Studio ref said red card and pen. Full blame on Luiz and Arteta.
Told u all Pepe is class just wrong system for him.
Tets Luiz out.
Pepe Laca Saka in.