Welcome to Saturday; let’s talk about some things.
I do find it quite incredible that there is a certain section of the fanbase that think refereeing decisions aren’t of interest and shouldn’t be part of the conversation.
The referee that sent off Rob Holding for a shoulder barge, let Harry Kane get away with this.
Does that challenge look like Harry Kane playing the dark-arts with ninja like subtlety? I don’t think so.
Simple fact with referees this season is that shocking decisions go against us more often than they do other teams. Some call it a conspiracy theory chatter, I’d say just look at how we’ve been treated, look at the mad decisions that have gone against us, and tell me how 1 soft penalty against United makes it better?
The reffing has been so bad for us this season we’ve actually had moments when the refs have invented new ways to fuck us… remember Martinelli getting two yellows in the same passage of play? How about Tomi getting his face stamped on with no action? How about Palace booting Saka in the air? How about the Xhaka sending off? The list goes on. We are treated differently.
If Rob Holding is sent off for standing his ground on 26 minutes, then Son should be sent off for throwing an elbow. The main difference seems to be that Bob Holding doesn’t scream like he’s been hit with a wet towel in the snow.
Paul Tierney had to really want to ruin that game to do what he did and the only people who think differently on that seem to have a history of wanting to see this Arsenal team fail this season. Embarrassing.
Ok, I’m done moaning.
Let’s take a moment to accept where we are right now: IN CONTROL OF TOP 4.
My view is that if we beat Newcastle, Champions League is ours.
The Geordies are THE banana skin game.
Eddie Howe will ask questions of us.
We have to treat this like our Cup Final.
They are no mugs in 2022. Below is the half-season table. It looks pretty close to what we did last season.
The positives we can take from this is their 3 tough games against Liverpool, Spurs and City have seen them beaten. They conceded 10 between Spurs and City alone.
The negative is this is their last home game of the season, it’ll be under the floodlights, their players will want to sign off in style, they have nothing to play for, so they’ll fly into us to put on a show.
The hope is that the news from the medical team is positive. Our players have been quite good at tapping themselves out early this season. Ben White sat on the bench at Spurs which was smart. Gabriel is quite robust, hopefully he took himself off the same way Bukayo did in the game prior. Having actual centre backs feels like an important part of the day… The thought of Tomiyasu and Big Mo in the middle with Lord Of Chaos starting fires on the left makes feel a little queezy I have to say.
The other worry I have is around fatigue. Saka looked blitzed the other night. A few of our players looked tired. 10 men for 65 minutes isn’t ideal. If we go to Newcastle tired, they’ll use their freshness to rattle into us. All the great managers say tiredness is part of the job, our young men need to find their inner Red Bull, crack it open, and let the wings carry them through the 90.
Ok, I apologise for that last line. Not my best.
If we play with the mindset we started the Spurs game with; we’ll be in good shape come the end of the 90. The absolute key is to not let the moment get to us, like it did Rob Holding. We need to control our emotions and manage the moments. Make it to half time without conceding and we’ll be in a solid spot to take the game from there. Arsenal away fans will be huge, I just hope they are prepared to suffer for a chunk of the game.
My pragmatic view of Top 4 is that if we can’t be Newcastle, we just weren’t ready to take the club to the Champions League this season.
If that happens, there will be recriminations with weirdo fans that have been gagging for a bit of bad news, but the reality is, we are at the start of this project and we know VERY clearly what we have to do to get better.
I thought this comment from Pep was really good as some preparation if things don’t go well.
This is savage 😂 pic.twitter.com/axDILal4ZF
— Le Grove (@LeGrove) May 14, 2022
‘Character’ and ‘bottle job’ comments at these players cannot be sitting in people’s drafts. The Premier League is the highest standard of football on the planet. What this squad of players has done this season has been exceptional. We can still finish with 72 points, with an average age of 23 years old. That is a marvel. If we make Champions League, it is a huge overachievement, if we don’t make it, it’s just a learning XP moment for a young squad of players with an outrageously high ceiling.
Being in control at this moment shows character, delivering on Monday merely demonstrates we got it right on the day, no broad-brush slander is going to land however things go.
I’m feeling bullish about the game. If we can put out a well-balanced side and the team can channel their grievances in a productive manner, we’ll exit with a win.
If we exit with a win, then we have to beat an Everton that will be safe, and properly on the beach.
Let’s see what the boys have got. We’ll be doing a BEFORE THE WHISTLE tomorrow after the Spurs win against Burnley. So be sure to tune in… but before, check out the Spurs post-game analysis.
Give us a 5* rating as well. x
Marquinhos looks slow af
Dissenter
He is ready based on what? He is a kid that hasn’t even made a mark in a poor Brazilian league that old man Hulk is dominating.
One for the future maybe but he won’t be a feature for years for us.
I don’t find playing high press and high defensive line against Spuds is the correct approach. It is true that Spuds was originally surprised by our game plan for 15 to 20 mins. Once they started to counter, you can see the holes in our defense including Holding fouling Son repeatedly and received verbal warning. and a yellow card from the ref. Arteta took the gamble to attack. Not only we lost 2 CB’s and also the match. We should have played 5 at the back and low block to save energy. I also follow podcasts from other Arsenal fans.… Read more »
Not a memorable cup final, couldn’t decide who I wanted to win.
Like the idea of ‘daylight robbery’ for Marquinhos but as I understand it it’s because Sao Paolo got him to sign a 5 year contract when 3 was the maximum allowed for the age he was, so self- inflicted wound.Got to be able to do some good Brazilian deals with Edu involved.
All the top teams pretty much, have a few Brazilians in their squads.
Trying to forget the NLD but what was Holding doing? He’s a great penalty box defender but his limitations get exposed when he is 30yrds from goal, slow and turns like the QE2. Son had him on a plate. I know he’s a popular player but personally I’d sell him if Saliba is incoming and invest in a FB!
Nelson, the NLD demonstrated why Soares,Holding and Xhaka should be upgraded. Soares and Holding as a partnership was scary shit.
I’m finding it so fascinating observing the Optmists versus the Pessimists. What seems evident is that everyone is using information to further the narrative they have already bought into. I’m going to see if we can look at both sides and of the argument in as neutral a way as possible and see what conclusions we can draw. Observations: *The Premier League is very competitive. Two of the three best teams in this years’ CL were from the EPL. Chelsea also pushed Madrid hard. West Ham would likely be in the final of Europa League had it not been for… Read more »
BobN16
Not so fast about dismissing Holding in the ASIS if Thursday’s mishap
He wasn’t properly set up for that game to begin with and Son would roast 95% of all the defenders in the league . That’s why he’s scored 21 non-penalty goals all season.
I love Saliba and I’ve defended him from the beginning here from the day he reported for duty in 2020.
That’s said, Son will roast him too because he’s just that good. The lad’s world class in the same basket as Salah.
* Not so fast about dismissing Holding in the basis of Thursday’s mishap
WE
Brazil is not a poor league., it is the best south Americna legaue much better than Argentina. Marquinhos? Well I dont see why to hyoe that player, Martinelli is world class compared to him, we are rolling the dice with this one, TAVARES 2.0 raw as hell, a gamble 100% straight Loan.
It is a poor league SAGG by European standards.
36 year old Hulk, Gabriel Barbosa and others look like world beaters over there, guys that cannot hack it in top European leagues. This kid hasn’t even been a starter in that league, never mind tearing up trees in it.
Nothing against his type of signing but I don’t expect him to make an impact on the team for quite a while.
Wenger Eagle
The Brazilian journo’s point was that the player deserved at least a look-in in pre-season before, maybe sending him off on loan.
There are many instances of players coming directly from South America to do well in the major European leagues.
Madrid started playing Vinai Jr from the beginning and Juan Alvarez isn’t going on loan before getting a place in city’s squad. Jesus played for city directly right from getting off the plane from Brazil on Jan 2017.
The point made was not to interpret this lads quality from his low transfer fees.
Throw Hutchinson or azeez in on Monday
If ever there was evidence of bias by refs against Arsenal, it was that penalty in NLD. Soft is an understatement. I do agree that holding was fairly treated though.
Pedro, we are not at the “start of this project” arteta has been manager for 2.5 years and the improvement has been unremarkable for me.
‘ Throw Hutchinson or azeez in on Monday’
A game that we absolutely have to win?
Pierre
If you thought there was even close to two penalty incidents and red cards for those non incidents then as I said earlier you should really go to specsavers !
Dissenter
Vini was bought for £50m and had already played really well and was a star for Flamengo. Julian Alvarez shredded the league last season and he is basically a phenom over in Argentina and has broken into the NT too.
This kid is a reserve at Sao Paulo in comparison.
Wenger Eagle Seems you are using the price tag to judge the lad Maybe if we had spent £25 million, you would take notice. Breaking-into-the-national team is a poor standard for a Brazilian because everyone knows there are dozens of players playing at the top levels of Europe eligible for that invite. Again the point is to have the player around for pre-season to show what he can do. If we didn’t have Martinelli in preseason under Emery we would never have known he wasn’t that far off. It’s not like we are some team challenging for the league so… Read more »
Dissenter, If we’re going to continue our improvement we can’t be sentimental about players. I’ve recognised Holding’s strengths for as long as I’ve noticed his weaknesses, same with Xhaka. I would prefer that when a squad player gets an opportunity to play because of unavailability of first choice player, I don’t want to be worrying about their deficiencies. I accept squad players by definition are not top class but for us to properly compete we can’t have such a drop down in standard if a first choice player is unavailable. With Holding, top bloke and all, great sub to bring… Read more »
I remember when people were urging us to sign an experienced starter ahead of Saka
That’s for you Charlie Champagne wherever you are right now
Still can’t believe the audacity of (Cunt)e, complaining about Arteta complaining a lot. The nerve of this singer.
Wenger Eagle Vini jrbwas not a star at Flamengo From his wiki page, he played his first game for flamengo in May 2017, he scored his first professional goal in August 2017, three months after Real announced that they had signed him, effective from when he became 18 years old in July 2018. Real signed him purely on potential, they signed the deal in May 2017 for him to begin at Madrid in July 2018. He was signed right after he played his first game for Flamengo. I don’t understand why our fans struggle with opportunistic signings such as this… Read more »
”Seems you are using the price tag to judge the lad Maybe if we had spent £25 million, you would take notice.” You can be downright odd at times Dissenter and your train of thought hard to follow. I never said this, I was simply using Vini’s fee as evidence that he was an established prospect in Brazil and a very different proposition to this lad. He was a starter for Flamengo and was averaging a goal/assist a game in his final season there. Marquinhos hasn’t started a game according to his Whoscored stats. He’s 19, not 16. So no,… Read more »
Diss
Yes it needs a spark maybe a youth can provide.
We looked lackluster on Thursday
Wenger Eagle
You know that all I wrote about was having him around for pre-season
Are you opposed to that?
Bob
Holding wasn’t playing to his strengths on Thursday.
He’s never been a high line defender. He’s the one that can man mark a striker who does his work in the box. Son is the master if making those clever runs so whoever setbHolding up to be responsible for Son, let him down.
Had Tomi been responsible for Son, it would have just been two players from Japan/Korea bringing their rivalry to the premier league.
With Holding, it was cast as the English orc vs the Korean tap dancer
Wicked Willy great post. Thought I’d acknowledge the effort you went into writing that.
Dissenter, you’re being patronising towards Holding if you you think he was just a puppet in the NLD., playing a high line. Son is an excellent player but the mismatch with Holding 30 yards from goal was embarrassing.
‘He wasn’t playing to his strengths’ for sure – he was playing to his weaknesses!
Bob Holding is terrible at defending 30 yards from goal, which was what Arteta’s tactics asked of him. How is that hard for you to understand. The mismatch is because the player Holding was being asked to play in his weakest links against Son who’s the king of those ghost runs. Arteta’s tactics or lack of in addressing the threat of Soncontributed to Holdimg;s mishaps. You want to ditch him because of one game so don’t preach to me about “patronizing” Holdimg was good enough as back-up before Thursday and is still good enough as back up today. Son is… Read more »
Terraloon
“If you thought there was even close to two penalty incidents and red cards for those non incidents then as I said earlier you should really go to specsavers !”
That tells me all i need to know about you.. say no more.
No Dissenter, it’s not a ‘knee jerk reaction’ – I’ve been aware of Holding’s limitations for some time.
Do you not accept that Holding is less than fast and turns slowly? Blaming Arteta for Holding’s positioning and decision-making may have some justification but is Holding so unaware of his deficiencies to not argue that it was a mistake to listen to Arteta?
Bob
You know there were alternate fixes for the spurs game because Tomiyasu was available and could have been assigned that Son role.
Holding was asked to do tasks that he’s not suitable for and so he panicked.
You’ll notice that I wrote that Arteta was partly responsible, not fully responsible because Holden, with his experience has to take some of the responsibility
I’ve got new for you, the buck stops on the manager’s table so there’s no offense intended when I write that Arteta has some of the blame.
Wicked Willie
Excellent analysis. Apart from a few points. I am in agreement with you on every issue. Of course – as you make perfectly clear – this is an on-going process, not a short-term fix. and we must wait to see the nature of the squad after the summer window. My belief is that Arteta will be given the where-with-all to bring in the missing pieces.
Bob N16
I don’t believe Holding is good enough to be a squad player. I hope we finally move him on in the summer. He should fetch a decent fee.
On Rob Holding: if Tierney had been alongside, there would have been no problem. Nor if Ben White had played in a back three.
The joke is on anyone who thinks Saliba is a ‘squad player’ who should be mentioned in the same breath as Holding.
Saliba is coming to be a rotational starter. Holding is purely a backup with a unique skill set.
Best of luck finding a better 4th/5th CB that won’t get roasted by worldies like Son or Mane.
Holding is okay for 4th choice. We aren’t Man city. We aren’t splashing out 40 mil on a 4th choice CB. But we need a better 3rd choice CB that can do the job against top teams. Whether that is Saliba is still in for debate but we need quality as 3rd choice.
Talk is that Liverpool and Chelsea have joined the race to sign Eddie Nkettiah
Maybe now some here will give him the props he deserves.
Diss
If we played a low defensive line, we could easily set up two defenders waiting for Son to come. Quite often, Saka has to fight through multiple defenders. When we play a high defensive line, then we’ll end up with Holding chasing Son all over the pitch.
Holding is a good squad option who, like Elneny ,wont make any fuss if he sits on the bench for a month or two at a time. He can not play marker for the likes of Son in a high line defense, but most teams don’t have that type of talent up front. Pedro, the PL refs might be biased, slow, fat, and lacking in basic footballer experience ,but they are not stupid and can tell the difference between a defensive game plan to eliminate skillful players by means of continuous shithousery – exactly what Holding was instructed by Arteta… Read more »
Nelson/Tom
Agreed about Holding not suitable for a high defense line which was what we were deploying in the first 15 minutes of the game, the so-called good spell
What we’ve also lacked all season is the ability for the squad to irrationally foul a key opposition player.
Maybe the club can pay for another specialist assistant coach for Arteta, same way we have throwing coaches these days,
There is no reason why Arsenal cant beat NU. I dont expect 4-4 when the fm shd have been home and dried. Play to win. In truth,Arsenal were ok for the first 15 min until the penalty was given,
Ferdanino came diving in at the Pool player in the box and no spot kick was given.
So Arsenal are fighting against odds to win .
The passing is too slow and gives time for defenders to regroup. Watch how other teams score with running
No offense, but nobody commenting on Marquinos has a clue. Me neither.
The scouts must see something special, and we’re trying to get in early.
You’ve looked at stats so you’re better than professionals who cover Brazil?
It’s a cheap buy, and I hope it turns out great. Stop whinging and pretending to be experts. You’re clowns watching YouTube.
Heard the Pod with Pedro, Jonny abd Matt lots of positivity and gung ho talks but I feel there was no objective analysis of the match or the position taht we are in. The problem with the red card and injury to Gabriel means that we have lost 3 first team.players to injuries during the crunch games Tierney, Gabriel and Partey. We are left with bare minimum not knowing the fitness of white for the next game. That doens’t bode well for a must win game. Apart from that the trend of this season has been that we loose matches… Read more »
Tom 00:51
Top post and best description that junior and I watched re Holding’s poor display.
Soft penalty but the red was merited – Holding had to go.
Seems Pedro has joined the tin-foil hat brigade now to support his Arteta agenda, he’s sunk so low with conspiracies.
Look out Pedro he’s behind you………………….
Have to agree with Tom’s most excellent summary. All the pundits I listened to came to the same conclusion that Holding doesn’t play like this, therefore this must have been on instructions by Arteta, because I have never seen him play like that and according to Opta statistics he never has had that many fouls in a single game and he only played 33 min. On top of that his comments after the game have been derided by many and some considered it delusional clap trap. Conte’s reply is telling, he couldn’t care less about how Arteta is doing but… Read more »
This Mavropnous business isn’t very clear. What’s reported is that Stuttgart have the option to buy him for £3.5 million if they stay up. That doesn’t mean Stuttgart can keep him for £3.5 million and sell him to Westham or another club for £20 million. in the same window. There’s no contract lawyer that will leave those loopholes there. These’s more detail in contracts than we know. There’s’ a reason why contracts aren’t just a single paragraph, they’re are caveats and clauses written in legalese. I suspect Arsenal will have clauses about what changes if he’s sold back to England,… Read more »
Stuttgart has stayed up, today was the last game in the Bundesliga and they finished 15th outside the relegation area.
As far as his sale is concerned that is what has been reported in the media of some 17mill of profit, but again that maybe just click bait, the same with all the se stories appearing about Saliba.
For me the penalty and red card were soft and would never have been given up the other end of the pitch or the ref would have put himself under enormous pressure from the crowd for the rest of the match. By giving those 2 home decisions it effectively made his job a whole lot easier for the remainder of the match, very smart mr Tierney. As for the decision to have Holding on Son, my comments from yesterday morning covers it “Holding had no choice but to engage Son as in all 3 occasions prior to the red Cedric… Read more »
This is really off topic but Lewandowski is available & I would love to have him at Arsenal . Wishful thinking I know .
Killroy
It doesnt matter how Holding played if the ref was inclined to give one side the advantage and not the other . Get that in your head. The things we have seen from the refs in this season and previous ones are mind boggling and never been seen before or after .
“The finger should be pointed at the manager..”
Then the exit door for him to leave by, some would say.
Devine S, did you manage to keep a straight face when writing such conspiracy theorist codswallop? We’d have been happy if awarded to us even if soft.
Are you lot stock piling tin foil now or is AFCF offering good discounted rates?
We lost by Arteta’s faux pas with Cedric, Tommi and Holding selections and tactics. Conte knew where to focus his attack and Arteta played into Conte’s vastly experienced hands like the rookie he still is.
Surprised by you, as you normally post intelligent thoughts.
Am I defeatist right now yes. What do I expect, he’s played the same players into the ground for months. Of what squad data took he has we haven’t used it. We need tomi in his preferred position we need nuno left.
Tempted to roll with Martinelli. I’m still a Pepe fan, his lack of goals contribution is hurting us as the front 3 have gone cold scoring now . We ended up in 5th after this weekend.
Pierre
👏👏
Don’t criticise Arteta too much though or you could be in trouble.
Arteta is not a rookie.
The fact that he made such naive tactical decisions, with his background and experiences in the game, is incredibly concerning.
Sometimes you’ve just got to hope that things work out.
Spuds could drop points against Burnley today because remember it’s in their DNA.
Will they do likewise against Norwich, highly unlikely……..BUT!!
All we’ve got to do is beat Newcastle and Everton!!
Easy then!
This is the biggest game of the season and will have a massive effect on Artetas future. Top4 and we can go out and sign top players to move us to the next level. If we bottle the run in we are in the second level market and the pressure ramps up on Arteta. Whatever good will he has will disappear if we don’t challenge next season.
Tony
We’d have been happy if awarded to us even if soft.
How many have we been given ? All I am saying is that referee’s incompetence have hurt us a lot more than any other teams and its beyond consipracies now . The evidence is mounting ,you can choose not to look at it fair enough.
I don’t think we will get the required results and neither will Spurs drop any points. Just being a realist.
But the reason we will be missing out on top 4 will be those three easy games that we lost back to back. Under no circumstances can a team with a top4 ambition afford to do that. So in a way i don’t think we are even worthy of a top 4 finish.
Even if we get there it would only be because Spurs turned out to be more unworthy than us.
Of course , it was worse when wenger was manager, as he said “to beat Arsenal you have to kick Arsenal” and we had no protection whatsoever from the officials…the amount of broken legs from horrific tackles is all the confirmation you need. Penalties for and against were always weighted against us despite the fact we dominated 90% of our games… Red and yellow cards were weighted against us despite the fact we were a footballing side. The difference between then and now is that the wenger obsessives refused to recognise the bias against The Arsenal back then but have… Read more »
Arsenal v Newcastle
Previous 19 games .
18 victories
1 defeat
Pierre
Yes, you are right, teams were physical against us but Wenger should and could have countered that by having his own enforcers to protect the technically gifted players. Once the invincibles broke up, he never did that.
Pedro On refereeing and to quote: ‘the only people who think differently on that seem to have a history of wanting to see this Arsenal team fail’ I really think you’re going against the grain here. We lost to Spurs- it hurts always, but the only other source I can find that agrees with your line is Untold arsenal. This is a website that thinks arsenal fans should never complain about anything ever- apart from referees and the press. The point is this: We lost that game and we deserved to lose it. We got it all wrong on the… Read more »
Advice from Antonio Conte to Arteta: “He has to focused more on his team and not to complain. ”
Conte is helping Arteta to grow up.
Arteta was complaining about the ref’s decisions for effect, to try and deflect criticism away from his players ( and himself!)by focussing the blame elsewhere. He knows that his players have to have the right mindset in the last two games and I imagine he felt that this strategy would make it easier for the players to mentally overcome this heavy defeat if extraneous circumstances, i.e. poor refereeing , we’re exaggerated/ focussed on.
It’s straight from the manager’s ‘psychological coaching manual’. Every single manager uses it from time to time. Nothing to see here.
Nelson, Conte never complains? Hello……..
Nelson
Stones and glass houses spring to mind….
Conte has done nothing but moan since he’s been at Spurs, Conte telling Arteta to stop whinging, is like demanding that water to stop being wet
Kuluvevski likely to be unavailable for today
Jonko I’d say if we get to Top4 It will be because we’ve won 23 games. That itself is a very respectable number of wins. If we don’t get Top4 it will be because of double digit number of games we’ve lost. That itself is a very worrying stat. We’ve lost more games this season than Crystal Palace. I did predict yesterday that main thing on Arteta Cult Menu next day or two will be: “If you don’t think Arsenal was robbed by the ref on WHL, you’re miserable sod and you hate the club.” These guys are so easy… Read more »
alexanderhenry
Of course, I don’t know Arteta, none of us do, but what I do know and see is someone that suffocates his players.
If the process or project is based on this mindset and these philosophies then I’m afraid it’s going to be a very frustrating and worrying next three years,
‘’Advice from Antonio Conte to Arteta: “He has to focused more on his team and not to complain. ” Conte is helping Arteta to grow up.’’
Yeh right cause Conte hasn’t complained at all, in fact wasn’t he was complaining about playing early on Sunday.. honestly the Shit people come out with
Conte is the moaniest wanker in the prem he bitches constantly angry small man syndrome
Fuck that wiggy midget
Whatever the rights and wrongs of last weeks game, I think we have seen new lows, precedents and ways refs find to do us this season. Eg the much mentioned Saka being kicked by the Palace player in front of the ref, face stamping, Martinellis two yellows in a single passage of play, blatant penalties in our favour denied , players getting yellows for first or second tackles , that ridiculous Spurs pen last week . Then, as Pedro has mentioned, the fouls per cards ratios compared with others. When we see Liverpool, City , Spurs, and yes, Burnley getting… Read more »
Jonko
agree, we are not worthy of fourth after loosing to CP, Brighton and Soton on the trot
Graham62May 15, 2022 08:02:38
agree
“Arteta is not a rookie. The fact that he made such naive tactical decisions, with his background and experiences in the game, is incredibly concerning.”
Graham, ‘suffocating of players’ is another person’s ‘precise coaching’.
Your seemingly emotional response comes across as from someone who has had training ground insight or an ear to the Arsenal players. Obviously players are not going to criticise his methods openly but they do appear to be on board with his coaching style and often comment accordingly but then maybe my perspective is less insightful than yours!
Didn’t Brighton best spurs at the lane the very next week they beat us ? Or did I imagine that
Mr Serge “Fuck that wiggy midget” – wish I had your way with words, that’s bordering on the poetic.
It’s because Arsenal are still considered a French team.and Spurs a more English team
Arteta is not perfect far from it but we are top 4 with it being in our hands with 2 games to go Who thought we would be here ? Also Dow e get rid of s manager that has got us further than we all thought this season ? I don’t get the desire to remove him who would we bring in ? What has he done to warrant sacking ? Why do we want to start again when he has done all the hard work and almost rebuilt the side ? Let’s see where this takes us Like… Read more »
Like some posters have mentioned, Arteta was indeed deflecting from his poor setup. Did Cedric nudge on Son prevent Son from heading the ball? Yes. Was this a foul? Yes Was it soft penalty? Yes Did Holding deserve the 2 yellow cards? Yes Have we gotten soft penalties in the past? Against Manchester United sole days back. Have our players got lucky with refereeing decisions? Yes, Xhaka’s foul against Leeds was a red and he didn’t get a yellow card. Over the course a season these things balance themselves out. “Same Old Arsenal, Always Cheating” is something I have heard… Read more »
Ray in LA,
‘agree, we are not worthy of fourth after loosing to CP, Brighton and Soton on the trot’
If we have the 4th highest points total after 38 games we will deserve to finish 4th, to say otherwise is a tough position to argue. If your argument is to highlight three bad results, it would be very easy to do the same with pretty much every team in the league.
Graham “Yes, you are right, teams were physical against us but Wenger should and could have countered that by having his own enforcers to protect the technically gifted players. Once the invincibles broke up, he never did that.” If only it was that simple Graham… Wenger bought Xhaka as an enforcer and he breathed on a couple of opposition players a couple of times and saw red , he hardly makes a tackle now . Arsenal can’t play teams at their own game because there are a different set of rules for us, the number of reds and yellows weighted… Read more »
The truth is, Conte played Arteta with those comments about postponing the NLD, and Arteta fell for it like a rookie that he is. Should have known better and not respond to it. You don’t get into these psychological wars with seasoned cnuts like Conte. Add to that the fact that Italians are masters of dark Arts when it comes to football.
benkind ‘over the course of the season these things(refereeing decisions) even themselves out’
You missed the word ‘should’ before the word ‘even’.
“Same Old Arsenal, Always Cheating” is something I have heard this season’ – Every season. When an Arsenal player gets fouled and is slow to get up the opposition fans are quite likely to sing this.
By singing it, it doesn’t make it true but I’m sure you must know that, or not?
Benkind “Did Cedric nudge on Son prevent Son from heading the ball? Yes. Was this a foul? Yes Was it soft penalty? Yes” Cup final yesterday Did a liverpool player push a chelsea player in the back in the penalty area when he would have been clear on goal …..yes Was this a foul….yes Was he the last man ….yes Should this have been a penalty… yes .. Should it have been a red, taking into account it was a deliberate push and he was the last man …yes Did the ref give a penalty…of course not meaning he bottled… Read more »
The psychobabble deflections are what’s commonly known as ‘excuses’ here – basically what we’ve been getting for Arteta’s short comings for the last 30 months. Arteta screwed himself, the team and fans when he elected to play Cedric who has been very poor recently to marshal Son with the limited athletically challenged Holding. As a back up CB he’s fine most off the time. Re-post above Arteta played into Conte’s hands that many here were concerned about pre kick off. Then Arteta went on his usual deflections in this case; blame the ref. Pedro tried to validate Arteta with his… Read more »
Burney with a low block five..spurs missing kuluvseski…they aren’t really good at threading through and Lucas is only good with running with the ball…can we hope?
Spurs at home will beat Burnley unfortunately. Burnley will be shit today.
Pierre Am I surprised the ref gave nothing ….no Yes you are right if that happened (cause i didnt watch). That should have been a penalty according to the laws. The referee was wrong. The thing is, according to the laws of the game were the decisions that went against us correct or not? They can be soft and maybe not given always but were the decisions wrong is the question. Bob N16: Okay maybe “should” but there you go, we too benefit from the “inconsistencies” of the referee. That is the game. If we benefit I don’t see a… Read more »
Tony “… For me for next season I want only one thing reintroduced: Accountability throughout the club to a realistic SMART plan moving forward being equally eye-test and stats’ driven. The boardroom down is having its long overdue MOT with hopefully broken parts replaced throughout the club…” Very good comment We are going to be 4th. However we need to know what the objective for Arteta is next season too. Another thing is we need to find someone to replace Parety. It is a world Cup year and the season will be paused for the world Cup, let us prepare… Read more »
Benkind LAn unjust law is no law. We have benefitted this season from inconsistencies of the referre and we have suffered from it. That is the game. We move on.” An unjust law is no law. We have benefitted this season from inconsistencies of the referre and we have suffered from it. That is the game. We move on. Be careful you are far too balanced in your comments . Pierre almost certainly will start to question your loyalties, your sanity and so on This article is worth a read https://www.espn.co.uk/football/english-premier-league/story/4452736/how-var-decisions-have-affected-every-premier-league-club-in-2021-22 Look at the subjective calls and you will see… Read more »
Tony I dont think there is, or has been, much accountability for a decade or more so Im not holding my breath. Where was the accountability over the Willian or Auba deals ? Im also not a big fan of moaning about refs or bad luck. Excuses are the refuge of losers. Wenger was the master moaner. To quote the American football coach he was of the opinion he never lost a game he just ran out of time.
People are soo so thick on here its annoying . The same shit that happened in our match , happened in the FA Cup Final and the same ref was in VAR and he didnt gave a pen . How stupid can you be to not recognise the bias.
I mean, we got some dodgy referee decisions against United and no one seemed to bite.
We were soundly beaten by Spurs. Rest of it is jjst excuse making that seems to pop up a lot when we lose and it’s stupid to think any fan wants this team to lose let alone a NLD.
It’s still all in our hands so I’d rather just focus on that.
Also maybe those clamouring for new contracts for rhe likes of Cedric can put their emotions asides and see how averagely poor some of these squaddies are
You guys still arguing about the penalty loooool
Every team in the league including the top 2 can probably put out a 10 min video compilation of how they’ve been fucked over by the refs over the course of rhe season.
Every time I see Son now I want to slap him.
Teraloon
Haha, no Pierre is mostly fair in his assessments. At the end of the day we all fans, not experts who have to be balanced. We all want what is best for Arsenal.
That link you provided is very great. Thanks.
Hopefully Spurs get spursy and we get that UCL position. We really need it.