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
Sorry lads but Bowen just has the look of a player who will end up in a Liverpool shirt.
11 Goals and 12 Assists is a very good return.
Saka is 20* not 19
Odegaard – 2600 mins, 6 goals, 4 assists
Maddison – 2240 mins, 10 goals, 9 assists
That’s what the extra millions give you. For all the Odegaard is super class crowd out there. Yes, he was cheaper and is a value transfer, but let’s not kid ourselves that we got the better player of the two.
Btw ESR has better stats than Ode too but he’s a reserve winger now and the favorite Ode took his place in the team.
Le Sauce When you are given the chance for CL with two games to go you can grab that opportunity even in what seems adverse circumstances. It’s the test of real mettle. And if you accuse others of ignoring Arsenal’s depletion of players going into these last two matches well we can ask you whether you are over-rating both Newcastle and Everton. Are Newcastle world beaters? Everton have been absolutely woeful all season long away from home. When will you Le Sauce be able to look at Arsenal and say with absolute conviction that yes we are a CL team… Read more »
Raptora Airlines agree the Jan window was a massive mistake. The problem is this if Spuds get 4th they will be in the same rebuilding market as us and who would ypu sign for Conte and CL or Arteta Arsenal er….?
Not a difficult decision.
Ignore Airlines. My phone had a mind of its own
Smith-Rowe – 1860 mins, 10 goals, 2 assists
Raptora,
You mean we should Spend extra £25-30M for an extra four goals and 5 assists when we can easily get that within the squad? How’s Madison doing well supposed to be a dig at Odegaard, it’s not like Ode has been sh*t
Even if this result holds Pool will have to batter Southampton and Wolves to get that GD up.
Imagine losing out on the Quadruple on GD… lol.
This blog has become the muddy morass of complaining about referees
Let’s slow down with all the preemptive complaining about the men in black
Our fate is in our hands
“When you are given the chance for CL with two games to go you can grab that opportunity even in what seems adverse circumstances. It’s the test of real mettle”. This is the real issue, we weren’t given that chance for fourth. We made that chance and Injuries to our key players didn’t allow us cement the Fourth spot. I never said Newcastle or Everton are world beaters and if you paid proper attention all I wrote about was our inadequacies and injuries that won’t allow us approach both games with much more confidence. If you’ve learnt anything from our… Read more »
If you look at Leicester their attacking play is predictable and also slow on occasions because they go through Maddison far too much when going forward.
This is nice for Maddison individually as far as his personal stats are concerned but perhaps not as nice for Leicester as an overall team this season.
Ish,
I assume you meant Arsenal and Odegaard instead.
Don’t care about your excuses. No CL will be another season of failure. I we can’t make it its just the same choke like Emery.
Le Sauce Newcastle away is not taken for granted. I’ve already said that most fans will not even be genuinely angry if we don’t get CL from here on in just for the simple fact that deep down we all know we are not absolutely required to be in CL. There is a punching above our weight scenario going on here. But having said that when you are so close with so few games to go you grab that chance even in what seems like adverse circumstances. You still didn’t answer the question Le Sauce. When will you as an… Read more »
On the face of it, we have got two winnable games to make a huge step forward. Can Arteta get them fired up to just do the job expected?
If we do not get there, the first hire should be the full time sports shrink. A good one at that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ravi4YtUTxo&ab_channel=DontHateOnJord
raptora
“I assume you meant Arsenal and Odegaard instead.”
So you don’t want to replace one player with another but have the same sort of problems for the overall side do you.
Arsenal have done well this season to be in contention for CL at this late stage because of team ethic really.
I don’t think bringing in a talisman player like Maddison who is going to be deanding the ball from his team mates every few minutes is going to be conducive to this.
Why is Maddison even being discussed? We have two CAM’s now in Odegaard and ESR.
Would be a waste of money to sign another one.
Antonio cannot hit a barn door post Christmas.
WE,
I’m not asking for Maddison’s signing, just that the of a big te should contribute a lot more than 6 goals, 4 assists looking at a player that we had interest in.
the AM of a big team***
Turning into a shit day’s football…
That draw at Anfield against the Spuds has got to hurt now for Pool.
VAR is going to give a pen here.
Gabriel been a threat and wins his team a penalty.
andy,
Yup. All the pressure will pile up on us. Very nervous for tomorrow. I hate Monday night football in general. Add that we play after the spuds won, away to one of the loudest fan bases in the country, they’ll be eager to make a statement this season that next season they will be an important team. A very, very tough game.
Always did like Fabianski, good keeper.
Fabianski is a specialist at saving penalties. It wasn’t a bad pen but saveable and it showed.
What the fuck 😂😂😂. You would think city’s final game is a non entity but had they won this, they wouldn’t need to try hard on the last game.
Mahrez bottled it though.
“When will you as an Arsenal fan be able to look at this side and say beyond doubt that yes CL is where we should be at for sure? Not this season is it. Unlikely to be next season either. What season?” This is a reflection of how left behind we’ve been over the years and I don’t have Psychic powers to be able to predict when we become a proper CL team. However what I can do is to look closely at our performances and results next season with the CL in mind because I believe next season is… Read more »
I would want Raphinha if they don’t go down. If they do he has a 25 mil release clause and he will join Barcelona. But they won’t afford him at 50 mil. We would have genuine competition in all positions behind the striker should we sign him. Saka needs an alternative. Maddison isn’t needed. We need a winger who can play both wings. ESR and Odegaard can hold it down at CAM.
That penalty miss by Mahrez just means city can’t start celebrating yet. What a chance to wrap thing up
Raphinha? Underwhelming for me. Not sure why we need him anyway.
Aguero’s title winning goal in 2012, 3 mins and 20 secs into added time is the closest I’ve seen an EPL title be decided. Maybe this year we are in for another thriller lol.
It’s all set-up for Stevie G to redeem his 2014 slip and deny Citeh the title on the last day with Villa.
It’s all set-up for Stevie G to redeem his 2014 slip and deny Citeh the title on the last day with Villa.
Coutinho to score winner.
We really do not have any excuses to not Finish fourth. Credit to Artedu for us being on the brink of CL. They are also due criticism if we do not make it, for all the decision making and team management up to this point
Samesong
Think they only need to draw so long as Pool win both their games.
That pen save was massive, gives Pool hope at least that Villa can pull off a draw.
You’ll never beat this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAZK5PpOZOQ
Why didn’t Pep make early changes!? Always wondered why KDB never usually steps up to take their pens?
Would be the shock of the century if Villa gey something at the Etihad.
Saints might give Pool a hard game….even with their rubbish form no game is easy in the EPL.
Nah!! Villa will be battered by Citeh in front of their home crowd….see another high score game.
I cannot see Villa withstanding the storm either but you never know, City will be nervous as their entire season is resting on that game.
Pool at least have 2 other trophies in the bag and a CL Final coming up.
They will only be nervous till the first goal goes in….only way Villa do well is if Citeh don’t score early….but with Peeps like Foden coming back in at home, can’t see how Villa survive.
Pool have to be smart in how they approach this with the UCL coming up in terms of rotation and to avoid any further injury pile up.
But final match day will be exciting all round for different reasons. Just pray/hope our lads show up tomorrow and turn Newcastle over…
Loyika
Only takes an early Villa goal/flukey goal to complete shift the mood though.
I mean on the Aguero comeback they were 2-0 down to relegation candidates QPR at home after 90 mins.
Wolves have been dire too but they could make a nuisance of themselves against Pool on Sunday. Unlikely though.
I think City will roll over Villa.
really happy to see leeds get a point. can’t believe spurs got another pen against burnley, not all bad tho would love to see burnley go down once and for good
In the words of many a StarWars film.. I have a bad feeling about this..
Everything seems to be falling into the Spuds hands.
If Brentford beat Everton (entirely possible).. Everton will still need points vs us..
We have to go to Newcastle and win..
Spurs have Norwich, who are shit.
I have a very bad feeling about this…
Still, its in our hands I spose…
Everton just scored. They’d be all but safe if they win today, so that’s a first bit of good news for us.
We win tomorrow it’s done especially as Everton will have nothing to play for as it stands
Coyg
Here we go Everton down to 10
the burnley coach made an interesting comment…he said barnes was tugged [arm pulled] and was off-balance when the ball hit his arm
so an unnatural position for someone off balance is different from someone who is balanced
the point he made was that there are serial fouls/ possible-fouls in any set-piece and it is how far you want go back when VAR-ing
Hah, a red card for Everton, and it’s a defender who’s gone. Never a dull moment in PL.
Why did VAR not look at the shirt pulling on Richarlison? This is utter shit
The old ruling was best. There had to be a clear indication of arm/hand to ball for a penalty to be given not the other way around ball to arm/hand. You may have got instances of players being cute and disguising that they had actually put their arm/hand to ball instead of the other way around but it most cases it was clear cut enough. None of this unnatural position malarkey. We all know why it was put in and that was to see more goals scored from pens. And you got a goal today from Spurs. In so many… Read more »
Everton down to 10 men after being well on top.
They also play Thursday night at home to Palace.
Win lose or draw today it’s still a good chance they be safe by the final whistle v Palace.
We have to win tomorrow night or it’s all over for 4th but come next Sunday if we need to beat Everton to secure 4th we can have no excuses not to get the job done Everton will be either safe or certainly not as rested or prepared as we will be.
Not really worried about Everton on the last day, much more so tomorrow night.
We were not fucked over by Paul Teirney but by one of our own players who was mugged off by someone he may by now realise is a world class footballer. If Holding had stayed on Arsenal might have got something out that game. Not sure if Song dived for the penalty, but Nketiah definitely did in an early attempt and was lucky not be carded himself. I’m not being charitable to Spurs and would never agree that they’re better than us, but if Conte had been in charge all season they would probably be out of sight by now… Read more »
WE,
Agree what today’s result means no messing about and thoughts of a point being a good result going in we need to win.
Tomiyasu White CB’s I would think Martinelli always seems to play well against Newcastle won’t be easy but if we can’t beat a side with nothing on the line but pride 14th in the table when it matters we don’t deserve 4th.
Son not Song
amazing how quickly earlier ref decisions in the season have been forgotten about in an effort to bash our own players and supporters. did or did not godfrey cleat tomi in the face? did or did not macarthur kick saka as hard as he could in the back of the calf not even trying to go anywhere near the ball? did or did not bruno F go studs up into nuno’s ankle? no one has said that rob holding was playing well – that’s not the fucking conversation. thhe conversation is that calls like that have no place in any… Read more »
Can’t touch Richardlison in the penalty box he another serial diver too.
Zacharse
I made the same points the other day about clear red cards not being given in two games against us neither were hard calls.
The Ayling tackle how the ref didn’t deem it a red on first viewing baffling.
The Martinelli farce of two yellows at Wolves get’s forgotten because we won the game.
Our supporters are some of the biggest moaners when it comes to refs, leave the NLD behind.
What’s done is done, we beat Newcastle and Everton and 4th is ours. Let’s not go into tomorrow with a victim’s mentality from the off.
What’s done is done, we beat Newcastle and Everton and 4th is ours. Let’s not go into tomorrow with a victim’s mentality from the off.
👆
But some cant help it, they are allready blaming
the ref!
How have VAR not sent off Mykalenko?
How good is eriksen, if only we could get him in next season..
Erikson is mustard for sure how spurs underutilized him in the end and basically threw him out is beyond me
Everton are shite
Brentford 2 quick goals
Well coached side of championship players apart from a. Couple
Watching this Everton team and not sure whether it’s better if they are safe by the time we play them or better if they need a won to be safe
Playing with freedom and nothing to lose can make them more dangerous than if they playing with pressure?
What do you all think?
Everton losing suits us…. They play palace Thursday and will go all out for the win to secure their status… hopefully get knackered for their last game 😁
Whatever the question is, DCL isn’t the answer.
The people Everton pay to play professional football
Richarlison really needs to get more bookings for simulation.
I mean who pays Rondon to play professional football in 2022
Everton are a shambles
Everton has Crystal Palace on Thursday night. Fail to win that and they’ll need at least a point from our fixture. The good news perhaps is that they had two red cards today.
let’s be honest, what we’re currently experiencing is not the developmental phase of a well-defined multi-level “process”…simply put this is little more than a reboot of what was on offer at the tail end of last season with a more youthful disposition…of course, we brought some new faces into the fold, one for depth, one for the future, two everyday defenders and a starting Keeper, but none of these additions had the potential to redress our rather anemic tactics, unless you were under the misguided impression that Ben White was the “missing link” who would provide us with the defensive… Read more »
T . Hernandez’s goal for Milan is unbelievable
Zacharse,
Great points you listed, and there are many more from just this season.
On Twitter, I just saw the handball that was much clearer, when we were playing Burnley. Of course it was ignored.
Didn’t Cedric blatantly handball against Utd? Didn’t Xhaka get away with a red card at Leeds? Where’s the videos of that? Oh wait, thats not fair on poor Lego head and his head cheerleader. Stop playing into Peter’s pathetic narrative. Both decisions on Thursday were ones where you’d claim if it was the other way round – no doubt – and there’s no excusing the completely moronic pieces of play from Cedric and Holding. To have this constant “the ref ruined the game” bullshit is embarrassing and childish. The ref saw intentional fouls and awarded them. However soft, they were… Read more »
Well said! 👏
Boring still talking about the spurs game
Let’s move on tomorrow is the biggest game of our season a must win
I just hope we really go for it
Alan – the only pathetic narrative here is yours. It’s strident anger masking a whimpy fair weather support . We don’t even know tomorrows result yet. Will you be on here if we win? I highly suspect not . I see less genuine bitterness to Arsenal on Spud sites . The weirdness is owned by you . Pedro is simply giving a strong defence of Arsenal and a narrative where a fair if not majority think Tierney is crap. The Tierney is crap message appears to be at least partially supported by Hackett and other ex refs . Plus Klopp… Read more »
Alan, I am certainly not one for pedro’s arteta pom Pom club, but we have had biased refereeing against us for a long long time. I agree about the decisions we got v man united (Tavares penalty non awards) but that’s one game this season… now look at the games we were harshly treated in and tot up the points difference that could have made to our total. We always get fucked over with yellows and reds and 50/50
Graham you gonna well said that as well ?
The RVL
Spot on.
The trouble is if you are critical of the process you are not an Arsenal supporter.
Based on number of games played, player availability and opportunities presented to us to move forward, if we don’t make top 4, it will be an underachievement
I was close to nodding off reading that long winded comment from vera lynne
Agreed G62…not to mention how debilitating just such a failure would be come recruitment time…it’s important to note that the fanbase didn’t move the goalposts, Arteta did when he put the developmental process on the backburner and placed the focus squarely on securing a CL invite, which was clearly evident by his deployment of a even “safer” brand of football…the fact that he went silent during the winter window is even more baffling considering his singularly focused objective…let’s hope that the players can rise to the occasion and win our remaining 2 affairs so that things don’t go pear-shaped at… Read more »
Penalty and red card decision against us
Were correct. Can we stop moaning and making excuses.
Markymark
I think the reason many fans are critical of the process is that they don’t see the positives in our manager that you and others do.
If we win, fantastic, I’ll be on here.
If we don’t, I’ll still pop along for a chat.
Fingers crossed it all works out.
If you’d of presented this situation at start of season, win last two versus lower table opposition for Champions league. We’d of all taken it, don’t give a shit if Spurs get the rub when needed.
Step it up Arsenal and sort yourselves out, right the wrong the transpired on Thursday night so we don’t have to endure Thursday nights in Europe.
Pierre coming from someone who constantly bemoans the departure of the wrapped up in cotton wool Prince, Ozil, and who likewise feels that our the mad poacher, Eddie, is the second coming, I’ll take your comments with an exceptionally large grain of salt…if I were to hesitate a guess, I would assume that you just got a tad crusty when you were required to hold up your reading ruler for such a lengthy period of time…btw, in regards to your earlier comment, “Wenger bought Xhaka as an enforcer and he breathed on a couple of opposition players a couple of… Read more »
I get it Graham but calling Pedro out as weird for being Fan centric on his own Arsenal supporting website is actually thoroughly weird in itself. He needs to have a word with himself
With a name like vera lynne I thought you may have a sense of humour..
Not that everyone has to agree completely with Pedro or Zach or most of us on these things…..but what drives an “Arsenal supporter” to take such a strident counter argument to everything positive about the club, including pointing out obvious injustices? There’s so many that Pedro and others haven’t mentioned from this season. Off the top of my head, Auba being dragged down by the last man, while a lighter instance against another team was red carded in the same week.. And Alan, I already said we do get calls occasionally, but we NEVER get calls that turn big games… Read more »
Youdaman,
As an example, the large majority of neutrals don’t even agree that both spud decisions were correct.
So I assume you must be a Tottenham fan trolling.
If you’re not a spurs fan, it makes you even worse.
Vera lynne
I am actually largely in agreement with your long winded comment.