I don‘t get it. I haven‘t heard anyone complaining about thr fact he was sent off on substance. it is a matter of fact that VAR did not intervene in previous - as well as the next day chelsea:pool - instances and it sure looks like there is a weird thing going on considering arsenal are the only team to get people sent off for delaying the restart, being VARed on last man or having a guy booked twice in the same sequence (martinelli wolves 2 years ago). not to mention newcastle away last year having a VAR say: I see two hands on the back and a push but I don‘t see any reason for gabriel to go down like this or ruling for a handball for havertz goal last year against villa away WHILE obviously seeing that the villa defender handled the ball first.
I heard Keown on the radio this morning suggesting that Howard Webb on the phone was talking to VAR and trying to influence them. to look again at the Saliba yellow card and upgrade to red. Martin O' Neill nearly self combusted after that. I like Keown and he's a true fan that doesn't hide his loyalty ever, but this is surely nonsense. More to the point and looking at the VAR official, Jarred Gillett, the Liverpool supporting Aussie, this isn't the first time he's bent over backwards to do us mischief. Remember his appalling performance when we played away at Villa last season and lost, with two penalties not given, various offences by Villa not given etc? The ref gave a yellow card to Saliba. VAR couldn't wait to get in his ear. Isn't the point of VAR to ask for a review "when there's a clear and obvious error made by the ref ?" Evanilson is not known for his speed, did VAR, sorry Gillett, know that White would NOT have caught up with him on his run towards goal? Some refs and VAR should not be present at our games. I remember that c.nt, Alex Ferguson, managing to get the FA to not allow one ref to officiate at OT after he had the temerity to award the opposition a penalty there many years ago. We need to make some noises about these Mancunian/ North Western officials such as Paul Tierney, Chris Kavanagh, Jarred Gillet officiating at our games. Ferguson did it and got away with it. I know we won't as the FA and media have been biased against us ever since Wenger arrived. Remember "The Sun" suggesting he was a paedophile? Then all the British managers like Allardyce and Pullis commented that these foreigners "don't like it up them".
I think Arteta is still learning how to play attack with 10 men.
When we had Rice sent off in the 49th minute at home to Brighton, It took Arteta 10 minutes to sub off Trossard for Calafiori, 4 minutes after Brighton scored.
Yesterday, subbing off Sterling when he was the only player with enough pace to offset the one man disadvantage was unworthy of a manager on 14 million per annum. That's where the spare wheel came off the bus.
Not often I agree with you diss.But on this occasion you’re correct.Going forward it’s prob best to just set up tactically as a permanent 10,11 is a bonus!
Pep let’s go anyone who wants out for whatever reason, that doesn’t necessarily mean he has no use for them.
People keep saying city are done every time a key player leaves: Mahrez, Silva, Gundogan …. name your favorite…. but the fact is it’s Pep why they keep winning regardless who’s missing.
Now Rodri and KDB, their two most influential players next to Haaland , are out but they keep on winning, and I wouldn’t bet against them to win in May again.
Someone else said it first, but it’s hard to beat Pep at his own game.
and we keep picking up the discards. Wenger used to have a great scouting network. Now we just look for EPL washed up, City or Chelsea. How we found Caliafori still a mystery and Merino, was the header in the Euros.
It’s good to have a game so quickly to bounce back with to rid ourselves the bad taste in the mouth from the Bournemouth game.
Liverpool look solid and competitive but I’m surprised to read in various places Arsenal fans feeling a draw will be a good result on Sunday. In view of our overall form I think we can go on to the game confident we can pick up 3 points. Because while a defeat wouldn’t mean goodnight Vienna, a 7 point gap at this stage of the season is still considerable and would leave little margin for error going forwards. I really don’t like calling it must win, or certainly must not lose, but it kinda is.
Arsenal v Blackburn. Went down to 10 men at 0-0 and won 2-0. Arsene was an attacking specialist. Almost polar opposite of Arteta. It was good that he set up our defence but the neglect on the attack is shocking
"Do we really know more than Mikel?!" what a quite ridiculous statement. None of us have been Premiership Managers, but so what? Can he not be criticised when he gets it wrong? If you believe that as we "don't know more than Mikel" there should be no comment, you really do not know the point of sites such as this. Perhaps Le Grove should shut the site down, or only accept pro- Arteta comments!
- on the message to our players after the Bournemouth game:
Very clear, we put a bit of perspective into the situation. Obviously we want to win in any context. The reality is we made that context very difficult for ourselves. It was very difficult already with the amount of players that we had out, the schedule and the games that we had to play, but that’s the reality. For that game we didn’t get away with it. We could’ve done and it would’ve been a very different narrative. The reality is we didn’t and now the context is that we have lost one game in six months
- on our disciplinary record:
Playing with 10 men, obviously there is an issue. The truth is you analyse the three very different actions and the outcome of them, the reasons are very different. Regardless of that, we cannot continue to play with 10 men, especially at this level. You see how much of a struggle it is for all of the teams to win football matches. When you want to do it with 10 men for 65 minutes, the task becomes impossible so we need to eradicate that. It’s clear why, the reasons and how. It doesn’t matter, we have to focus that it has to happen.
- on Shakhtar Donetsk’s circumstances and preparations:
Obviously a lot of sympathy for the situation that they’re in. Obviously, how can I imagine, especially speaking to Alex, how it affects the situation on yourself, the whole country, your families and the environment? The incredible attitude they’re having towards the situation and the things that they have to put in place to continue to be able to play football matches at this level and compete in the way they do, it’s remarkable and we’ll welcome them here tomorrow in the best possible way.
So are you inferring Arsenal & Arteta have no right to question the numerous,questionable,decisions that occur agains us.And No I’m not going to catalog them.Would take days!
In the interest of fairness.Yes I do.A few.Im referring to major ones.Except they appear few & far between compared the constant barrage we tend to get.
“Wanderers (Wolves) suffered the most from referee decisions in the 2023/24 Premier League season, with a net VAR decision score of -7. The Wolves were so unhappy with the VAR decisions that they called for VAR to be scrapped entirely ahead of next season. “
That’s from the independent panel btw.
Arsenal were right in the middle of the pack last season but I don’t fault you for thinking we suffered the worst.
If someone asked you who has it worse Palestinians or Arsenal you’d say Arsenal.
No love for the Palestinians Thats for sure.In the Israeli camp.But let’s not drag politics into it Tom.Dont doubt wolves have been hard done but that’s there problem.Im only concerned with how Arsenal are treated particularly with decisions that are unlikely to be repeated in a given season.Not even sure wolves can match that.
Can't really believe all the Arteta criticism based on one game which was poor. Not sure that using Kiwior as a right sided CB is ever going to end well. Left footed players, certainly defenders, never go well on the right side as they never have to play on the left side as they progress due to the generic lack of left footed players. It has been noticeable how much Saka has improved his right foot play over the last two seasons.
Merino was never bought as a free flowing Odegaard back up so starting him in that position was never going to bring out the best in him on Saturday , he is a younger version of Xhaka.
I agree that we do seem to have got extremely tentative early in games when maybe we should be able to go on the front foot more, but do we really know more than Mikel?!
Nobody should blame saliba for his red card really. Trossard put him in an impossible situation with his criminal miscontrol and misread of the situation and evanilson put in a 10 star clinic for digging out the red card. For a central defender that is an impossible situation to deal with.
And wouldnt be surprised at all if calafiori starts in salibas position despite being wrong footed.
But 19 out of 20 times, Saliba's positioning would have been fine as the Bournemouth player would have been offside if a teammate had made the same through ball. I believe it was the unexpected situation that Saliba found himself in that made him react in the way he did.
I'm sure Saliba would fancy himself in a foot race too! He had a brain freeze.
Sterling had a preseason. He also comes from playing for Pep. No reason he cannot hit the ground runnning. I am sure he will come good but he wasn't chasing back fast enough. Why sub him out for left footed CB when Ben White, a CB was playing RB.
To be honest, I am begining to get skeptical with Arteta's approach to games, or his philosophy of football coaching. It's worrisome Arsenal these days start games too slowly and they slow down the tempo once they are in the lead and comfortable in control. Regardless of the quality of opposition, Arsenal start games slowly and then relax and surrender possession to the opposition. Even when the opponent is begging for Arsenal to stamp their authority and run over them, Arteta becomes soft and slows down the game. He's too cautious for my liking and his tactical frailties are getting obvious. It was a game that you'd expect,
Before Saliba's red, Arsenal should have gone ahead with at list a goal but they ended first half without a single shot on target.
For me, I have lost hope in Arsenal winning the title this season. 3 red cards in 8 games and 5 points dropped! More than enough to lose the title. I blame the PGMOL for most of Arsenal's woes in those games and particularly the previous two, but we have to look inwards as well and take some responsibilities.
I'm not sure Arteta wants to win the league this season. If he wanted to, he'd have bought a natural #9 in the last transfer window because he knew that's a key area Arsenal were found short last season. Call it arrogance or disrespect to the EPL fir Arteta to think he can win the title without a top natural goal finisher. It is insulting to other competitive teams that spending lots of resources in strikers, for Arteta to think he can do it without one.
Arsenal and Arteta haven't convinced me they want now so I don't expect the sun to shine.
are we really thinking about appealing the red card? how would you argue that? it is by definition a red card - sure you can name multiple instances where similar situations did not lead to a sending off, but it won‘t help in appealing to point at other decisions that were wrong.
I‘m afraid we have to life with the fact we will be judged on a different standard than our direct competitors and we won‘t be able to change it anytime soon. just focus on not giving refs or VAR any chance to influence - will be hard but nothing else will help
Waste of time even thinking about appealing the card.My gripe is why did VAR get involved.The ref had made his decision.The problem lies with WHO was on VAR.Thats the real issue.Gillet the self confessed Liverpool fan was allowed to influence a decision he had no right to.Of course it looked even worse to see Webb head of PGMOL tapping away on his phone & quickly deleting a sent text.Not a good look.By any stretch.
Oh & an ex prem Ref.Halsey stipulated that on 4 of the criteria used to base the decision to send Saliba off ,three were incorrect in his opinion.Make of that what you will
lol no he called his wife .
How can anyone question PL corruption?
"Unconscious Bias"
The Buzz phrase.
What if he just listened into the deliberations, as any dutiful supervisor ought to do?
Some of you need to pipe down on this paranoid nonsense
I was an ironclad red card
Not so iron clad in the other game. Its a joke.
Few other incident of after whistle ball kicking not a card.
Deluded. Simple explanation really.
$$$$ rules the world .
I don‘t get it. I haven‘t heard anyone complaining about thr fact he was sent off on substance. it is a matter of fact that VAR did not intervene in previous - as well as the next day chelsea:pool - instances and it sure looks like there is a weird thing going on considering arsenal are the only team to get people sent off for delaying the restart, being VARed on last man or having a guy booked twice in the same sequence (martinelli wolves 2 years ago). not to mention newcastle away last year having a VAR say: I see two hands on the back and a push but I don‘t see any reason for gabriel to go down like this or ruling for a handball for havertz goal last year against villa away WHILE obviously seeing that the villa defender handled the ball first.
I heard Keown on the radio this morning suggesting that Howard Webb on the phone was talking to VAR and trying to influence them. to look again at the Saliba yellow card and upgrade to red. Martin O' Neill nearly self combusted after that. I like Keown and he's a true fan that doesn't hide his loyalty ever, but this is surely nonsense. More to the point and looking at the VAR official, Jarred Gillett, the Liverpool supporting Aussie, this isn't the first time he's bent over backwards to do us mischief. Remember his appalling performance when we played away at Villa last season and lost, with two penalties not given, various offences by Villa not given etc? The ref gave a yellow card to Saliba. VAR couldn't wait to get in his ear. Isn't the point of VAR to ask for a review "when there's a clear and obvious error made by the ref ?" Evanilson is not known for his speed, did VAR, sorry Gillett, know that White would NOT have caught up with him on his run towards goal? Some refs and VAR should not be present at our games. I remember that c.nt, Alex Ferguson, managing to get the FA to not allow one ref to officiate at OT after he had the temerity to award the opposition a penalty there many years ago. We need to make some noises about these Mancunian/ North Western officials such as Paul Tierney, Chris Kavanagh, Jarred Gillet officiating at our games. Ferguson did it and got away with it. I know we won't as the FA and media have been biased against us ever since Wenger arrived. Remember "The Sun" suggesting he was a paedophile? Then all the British managers like Allardyce and Pullis commented that these foreigners "don't like it up them".
Careful Jeff the Anti conspiracy ,virtue signalling mob will be on your back.Why do we keep getting Gillet? Good question.Better let them answer it.
true, its also his lack of knowing how to attack in general. We also do not have game changers with pace. ( Martinelli aint it anymore).
We have to assume that this will happen again a few times this season. Down to 10. He should practice in training 10v. 11 all the time.
I think Arteta is still learning how to play attack with 10 men.
When we had Rice sent off in the 49th minute at home to Brighton, It took Arteta 10 minutes to sub off Trossard for Calafiori, 4 minutes after Brighton scored.
Yesterday, subbing off Sterling when he was the only player with enough pace to offset the one man disadvantage was unworthy of a manager on 14 million per annum. That's where the spare wheel came off the bus.
Not often I agree with you diss.But on this occasion you’re correct.Going forward it’s prob best to just set up tactically as a permanent 10,11 is a bonus!
When we disagree, it's banter though.
No hard feelings for you
Sterling is finished just like Jesus and Zinchenko, Guardiola knew that before letting them go.
Pep let’s go anyone who wants out for whatever reason, that doesn’t necessarily mean he has no use for them.
People keep saying city are done every time a key player leaves: Mahrez, Silva, Gundogan …. name your favorite…. but the fact is it’s Pep why they keep winning regardless who’s missing.
Now Rodri and KDB, their two most influential players next to Haaland , are out but they keep on winning, and I wouldn’t bet against them to win in May again.
Someone else said it first, but it’s hard to beat Pep at his own game.
Klopp did it because he had a different approach.
and we keep picking up the discards. Wenger used to have a great scouting network. Now we just look for EPL washed up, City or Chelsea. How we found Caliafori still a mystery and Merino, was the header in the Euros.
It’s good to have a game so quickly to bounce back with to rid ourselves the bad taste in the mouth from the Bournemouth game.
Liverpool look solid and competitive but I’m surprised to read in various places Arsenal fans feeling a draw will be a good result on Sunday. In view of our overall form I think we can go on to the game confident we can pick up 3 points. Because while a defeat wouldn’t mean goodnight Vienna, a 7 point gap at this stage of the season is still considerable and would leave little margin for error going forwards. I really don’t like calling it must win, or certainly must not lose, but it kinda is.
https://x.com/Emzyl_/status/1847911310849179903
Arsenal v Blackburn. Went down to 10 men at 0-0 and won 2-0. Arsene was an attacking specialist. Almost polar opposite of Arteta. It was good that he set up our defence but the neglect on the attack is shocking
Great joy watching this!
"Do we really know more than Mikel?!" what a quite ridiculous statement. None of us have been Premiership Managers, but so what? Can he not be criticised when he gets it wrong? If you believe that as we "don't know more than Mikel" there should be no comment, you really do not know the point of sites such as this. Perhaps Le Grove should shut the site down, or only accept pro- Arteta comments!
Arteta press conference -
- on the message to our players after the Bournemouth game:
Very clear, we put a bit of perspective into the situation. Obviously we want to win in any context. The reality is we made that context very difficult for ourselves. It was very difficult already with the amount of players that we had out, the schedule and the games that we had to play, but that’s the reality. For that game we didn’t get away with it. We could’ve done and it would’ve been a very different narrative. The reality is we didn’t and now the context is that we have lost one game in six months
- on our disciplinary record:
Playing with 10 men, obviously there is an issue. The truth is you analyse the three very different actions and the outcome of them, the reasons are very different. Regardless of that, we cannot continue to play with 10 men, especially at this level. You see how much of a struggle it is for all of the teams to win football matches. When you want to do it with 10 men for 65 minutes, the task becomes impossible so we need to eradicate that. It’s clear why, the reasons and how. It doesn’t matter, we have to focus that it has to happen.
- on Shakhtar Donetsk’s circumstances and preparations:
Obviously a lot of sympathy for the situation that they’re in. Obviously, how can I imagine, especially speaking to Alex, how it affects the situation on yourself, the whole country, your families and the environment? The incredible attitude they’re having towards the situation and the things that they have to put in place to continue to be able to play football matches at this level and compete in the way they do, it’s remarkable and we’ll welcome them here tomorrow in the best possible way.
Fair comment from him imo.Others,don’t see it that way.Take Gary o Neil & his comments after the wolves match.
Wolves have had more contentious calls go against them over the two seasons than any EPL side.
Hardly surprising he said something.
So are you inferring Arsenal & Arteta have no right to question the numerous,questionable,decisions that occur agains us.And No I’m not going to catalog them.Would take days!
Do you recall any decisions going our way ?
In the interest of fairness.Yes I do.A few.Im referring to major ones.Except they appear few & far between compared the constant barrage we tend to get.
So you remember them but can’t name them.
No worries, that’s how the human brain works.
Really? Could have sworn that was Arsenal,with wolves not far behind?
“Wanderers (Wolves) suffered the most from referee decisions in the 2023/24 Premier League season, with a net VAR decision score of -7. The Wolves were so unhappy with the VAR decisions that they called for VAR to be scrapped entirely ahead of next season. “
That’s from the independent panel btw.
Arsenal were right in the middle of the pack last season but I don’t fault you for thinking we suffered the worst.
If someone asked you who has it worse Palestinians or Arsenal you’d say Arsenal.
No love for the Palestinians Thats for sure.In the Israeli camp.But let’s not drag politics into it Tom.Dont doubt wolves have been hard done but that’s there problem.Im only concerned with how Arsenal are treated particularly with decisions that are unlikely to be repeated in a given season.Not even sure wolves can match that.
It’s not about politics but rather about bias.
The Arsenal has suffered from it (bias) from the English media and British managers when under Wenger, and I’d suggest the remnants of it linger on.
Not to the extend you’re suggesting though.
Just like your political bias prevents you from assessing this other situation correctly.
Raise you right hand and swear then
Everyman and his dog knows it's wolves who've been burned the most.
Of course it will take days, because you will be making them up.
Now now diss.No need to be facetious.No need to make anything up you know full well.Your agenda lets you down.
Can't really believe all the Arteta criticism based on one game which was poor. Not sure that using Kiwior as a right sided CB is ever going to end well. Left footed players, certainly defenders, never go well on the right side as they never have to play on the left side as they progress due to the generic lack of left footed players. It has been noticeable how much Saka has improved his right foot play over the last two seasons.
Merino was never bought as a free flowing Odegaard back up so starting him in that position was never going to bring out the best in him on Saturday , he is a younger version of Xhaka.
I agree that we do seem to have got extremely tentative early in games when maybe we should be able to go on the front foot more, but do we really know more than Mikel?!
Nobody should blame saliba for his red card really. Trossard put him in an impossible situation with his criminal miscontrol and misread of the situation and evanilson put in a 10 star clinic for digging out the red card. For a central defender that is an impossible situation to deal with.
And wouldnt be surprised at all if calafiori starts in salibas position despite being wrong footed.
Trossard's poor packpass would have led to a goal conceded in the 30th minute.at best which is not the end of the world
Saliba's decision making reduced us to 10 men but let's not blame him? It was not an "impossible situation".
He's 23 years old and would have learned a lot from that mistake. He erred, it doesn't mean that he's not an excellent defender but he still effed up.
Trossard’s inexplicable pass aside Saliba’s situation was far from impossible
Half the EPL teams play a high defensive line where CB’s face these sort of balls over the top.
Evanilson isn’t a speed merchant and has one goal in 600 minutes of play for them, hardly a peak Ronaldo.
I fancy Saliba in a foot race against him over 30 odd yards.
But 19 out of 20 times, Saliba's positioning would have been fine as the Bournemouth player would have been offside if a teammate had made the same through ball. I believe it was the unexpected situation that Saliba found himself in that made him react in the way he did.
I'm sure Saliba would fancy himself in a foot race too! He had a brain freeze.
Sterling had a preseason. He also comes from playing for Pep. No reason he cannot hit the ground runnning. I am sure he will come good but he wasn't chasing back fast enough. Why sub him out for left footed CB when Ben White, a CB was playing RB.
Positive W Pete
The “W” stands for whataboutism
And your point?
To add some positivity , any result against Shaktar and Soton is acceptable.
To be honest, I am begining to get skeptical with Arteta's approach to games, or his philosophy of football coaching. It's worrisome Arsenal these days start games too slowly and they slow down the tempo once they are in the lead and comfortable in control. Regardless of the quality of opposition, Arsenal start games slowly and then relax and surrender possession to the opposition. Even when the opponent is begging for Arsenal to stamp their authority and run over them, Arteta becomes soft and slows down the game. He's too cautious for my liking and his tactical frailties are getting obvious. It was a game that you'd expect,
Before Saliba's red, Arsenal should have gone ahead with at list a goal but they ended first half without a single shot on target.
For me, I have lost hope in Arsenal winning the title this season. 3 red cards in 8 games and 5 points dropped! More than enough to lose the title. I blame the PGMOL for most of Arsenal's woes in those games and particularly the previous two, but we have to look inwards as well and take some responsibilities.
I'm not sure Arteta wants to win the league this season. If he wanted to, he'd have bought a natural #9 in the last transfer window because he knew that's a key area Arsenal were found short last season. Call it arrogance or disrespect to the EPL fir Arteta to think he can win the title without a top natural goal finisher. It is insulting to other competitive teams that spending lots of resources in strikers, for Arteta to think he can do it without one.
Arsenal and Arteta haven't convinced me they want now so I don't expect the sun to shine.
are we really thinking about appealing the red card? how would you argue that? it is by definition a red card - sure you can name multiple instances where similar situations did not lead to a sending off, but it won‘t help in appealing to point at other decisions that were wrong.
I‘m afraid we have to life with the fact we will be judged on a different standard than our direct competitors and we won‘t be able to change it anytime soon. just focus on not giving refs or VAR any chance to influence - will be hard but nothing else will help
Waste of time even thinking about appealing the card.My gripe is why did VAR get involved.The ref had made his decision.The problem lies with WHO was on VAR.Thats the real issue.Gillet the self confessed Liverpool fan was allowed to influence a decision he had no right to.Of course it looked even worse to see Webb head of PGMOL tapping away on his phone & quickly deleting a sent text.Not a good look.By any stretch.
Oh & an ex prem Ref.Halsey stipulated that on 4 of the criteria used to base the decision to send Saliba off ,three were incorrect in his opinion.Make of that what you will
LoL jeez, that's some hardcore conspiracy theory you've got going on here Pete
Conspiracy is your word,not mine.I normally use the phrase “unconscious bias”..Probably best sums it all up.