Morning Positive people,
In contrast to yesterday’s blazing sunshine a still day with patches of brightness this morning. An apt metaphor for my mood over the past 24 hours in relation to football.
First, the game itself I think, because that is what football is about. I often barely mention the content of the game but today, I find it helpful to remind myself at least what took place, on the pitch, with the ball.
An early start at the Bridge but the concerns that some had voiced in relation to tiredness after our return from Zagreb did not appear to trouble us in a bright opening 15 minutes when the home side were forced back. Sanchez was pressing Ivanovic hard. Theo put in a couple of good runs from deep with balls played in behind the Chelsea centre back which caught them both momentarily flat footed and required a quick recovery in one instance and Begovic’s help in the other.
After that opening quarter Chelsea came back into it a bit more, Hazard was involved on their left and Fabregas was knocking some useful one-twos around the edge of the box. Kosc and Gabriel solid, Bellerin busy but in control. Aaron working nicely and the source of our one good first half shot. A stoppage for a knee injury to le Coq was worrying especially having seen the replays but, surprisingly perhaps, he was up and trotting after a sit down. Tough boy and his contest with Matic was a real pleasure to watch as both tackle hard and neither has a propensity for theatrics. For the remainder of the half the sides traded punches. No alarms at either end for the keepers. It appeared the first half would close at 0-0 with both probably neither surprised nor disappointed at the stalemate.
And then there was an incident, more of which I shall come to in due course below.
The second half commenced in an entirely different mood, ten men, a sense of outrage, and also the withdrawal of our midfield enforcer, with the relief of his earlier apparent recovery erased. A much harder task, but do-able against a side who in the opening 45 minutes had not demonstrated much in terms of attacking quality or threat on our goal. PSG had shown how to tame these blue “babies”, and surely we could do the same. My horizon for the game’s result had reduced, I admit, from the three point win to the hard earned but entirely deserved draw.
And then the Zouma goal !! Like you I watched it then, and I have watched it since. I could point the finger at Sanchez and/or Monreal so far as trying to stop the Chelsea player, or Kosc for playing the Chelsea line onside but getting underneath the ball. I There was a collective ‘switching’-off’ which the home side took advantage off. No one player was culpable. I know, I KNOW ( and you probably do too) it was a move they have practised and practised on the training ground, and you know we have practised defending against on our training ground. And yet there we were, a goal down just eight minutes into the second half and with the hill having risen in gradient appreciably.
Nevertheless, and to the credit of every player in an Arsenal shirt we did press forward at 0-1, we did take the game to Chelsea, we pushed them back and made one great chance on the hour with Zouma and Cahill floundering that Alexis put over the top from four yards out. It was no easy chance, and Begovic was well positioned to frustrate the Chilean, but the miss a symptom of our current goal scoring malaise. In its way the miss was as crucial a moment in the game as many other more vividly remembered ones. The game went to and fro. The Ox and Giroud appeared, and even with ten men the handbrake was definitely off.
Chelsea seemed to pull themselves together again and began to press us. Santi’s second yellow compounded our misery and Chelsea’s comfort. After that we rather lost momentum though not our organisation. I noticed a couple of minutes before his exit he had failed to keep up in midfield when chasing a Chelsea player so I think with so much work to do his day was done anyway. Pity because he had led from the front as a captain of the side should.
I can’t be arsed to describe the second Chelsea goal. We all saw it and it is not worth further reference.
Moving on, inevitably, from the football we have the controversies of the afternoon. Or strictly speaking just two controversies. First is the Spanish Brazilian Diego Costa who is, it appears widely agreed (save for one deluded Portuguese) a nasty piece of work, with no interest in playing football and, judging from yesterday’s and his recent displays, not much talent for it. I do not want to watch his shit. If his performance is what football is about then stadiums would be empty and television cameras elsewhere. The disappointing thing yesterday was, as Arsene correctly pointed out, Costa behaves like that game after game, week after week. And yet we, and particularly Gabriel, and the referee fell for it. As With the Zouma goal I have no doubt at all that the squad, every single one of them was fully aware and carefully briefed about Costa and yet ……..
If you want evidence the headline of the match report this morning on Arsenal.com it has us beaten by goals from Hazard and Costa ! Or is that headline humour?
Which brings me to Mr Dean and despite my general respectful support and effort to understand the difficulty of refereeing a game of professional football his performance yesterday was poor. I thought the performance of both assistant referees and of Mr Oliver as 4th official left a lot to be desired also.
I have no dispute in Dean or any damn referee pulling out cards and sending off players. There are rules in football, despite what Mourinho would have you believe, and if those rules are broken then punishments, even the red card sanction will follow. What I object to was his failure to apply those cards and those punishments evenly and to despatch the prime source of violence and bad behaviour to the dressing room when he should have done so (see above). Dean was guilty of lamentable inconsistency yesterday.
Onward we struggle towards the Lane on Wednesday, another hard contest and no time for self pity.
Enjoy your Sunday.
Positively Arsenal 
Good stuff Andrew, But I am allocation Zero blame to Gabriel. I don’t care what people say he should have done. he it nothing wrong for me.
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He became the victim of the snake when instead the snake should have been killed. I do not think there is any blame attached to that other than the certainty that Gabby knew it was a bleeding dangerous hissing spitting beast that needed to be treated with cold ruthlessness.
I imagine we, and a few other clubs, will be formulating careful plans to get Diego what he richly deserves next time we meet.
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Many years ago I was told that if something is written in anger, far better to read it the following day and then decide whether or not to send it. So this morning on rereading my old fart’s thoughts, I xxx’d out that which may be thought of as libelous, inflammatory or plainly obscene. What is left follows:
xxxxx Dean xxxxx xxxxxx xxx xx xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxx xxx xxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxx xxxxx Costa xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxxxxx xx xxx xxxxx xxxxxxxx Costa xxxxxxxxxx Zouma xx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxx Dean xxxxxxx Gabriel xxxxxxx xxxxxx xx xxxx xxxxx xxxxxx Costa xxxxxx xxxxxx Dean xxxxxxxxxx Ivanovic xxxx xxxxxx Dean xxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxx xxxx. Cheating xxxxx xxxx xxxxx xxxxxxx xx Santi xxxxxx xxxxx.
Now I can go to church with a clear conscience.
Perhaps we should just write off the week as a very bad couple of days at the office.
Keep the faith especially at the spuds!
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anicoll you could have saved a lot of your time if your match report was simply
Match Report for Chelsea & Mike Dean v Arsenal
Two former BPL refs analysis of the game agreed that Diego Costa committed offences that at least warranted 2 straight red cards, and 4 yellow cards, so that is a total of 3 sending offs, Mike Dean issued Costa 1 yellow card, and in fact never awarded a free kick against him. Ivanovic committed 7 fouls and got 1 yellow, Santi Cazorla committed 2 fouls and got 2 yellows resulting in a red.
Arsenal had a chance 11 v 11, even had a chance 10 v 11, but had no chance at all 11 v 12, let alone 10 v 12, and 9 v 12.
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Andrew must be made of ice vein to b able to write this. The more I remember the match the more the outrage so it is highly impossible for someone like me to be able to write anythg good abt that match at the moment.
As much as everyone still think Gabby deserves the red card, I still totally disagree. The only reason why he deserved it was because he is an ARSENAL player. No player from any other top team would have seen red for that stuff.
If the FA doesn’t charge COSTA, that means DEAN has written his match report and claimed to have seen the incident. Then Mr fowlhead Dean should be charged for being stupidly negligent of his responsibilities as a referee. I’m still typing with a high level fury.
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Very subdued AndyNik… I’m amazed you are able to do that.. I’m still ready to kill..
I’m gutted…. that match clearly showed how an incompetent ref can have a negative influence on a game. I’ve posted a good Rant on GunnersoreArse… not by me, but another angry fan.
http://wp.me/p4FeF9-sI
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Please don’t read this as an attack on any of our players, as that is not the intention at all, its merely my feelings on where we are a little off at the moment.
A concern I’d have about Arsenal’s performance yesterday and so far for much of this season is that none of Ramsey, Cazorla, Walcott, Ozil and Alexis played at the top of their game, they were not at the high level of performance that Coquelin and the defense were, they were ok, nothing more, there is a sharpness missing from the game of all of them so far this season in the most part.
This also applies to Giroud and Oxlade-chamberlain, and from the small bit we have seen of Campbell too. So for some unknown reason our entire creative and attacking unit has not come near to reaching top level. Which is very unusual and odd, often you might see one or even two of them lacking sharpness, but others of them will be flying and its not a problem, but so far this season there has only been flashes of their best form,
For me Ozil has been the closest to being consistently good, Walcott’s runs look sharp but his finishing has not been, Ramsey seems to be doubting himself in shooting positions, Giroud just seems to be doubting himself full stop, Cazorla very up and down, yesterday he looked out on his feet at times, the Ref even outran him at one stage early in the second half, a la Denilson v Man Utd all those years ago, Ox is what ox normally is, flashes of talent, little end product and costly mistakes, and that leaves Alexis, and all I can think is that he is suffering the come down from high levels of elation after Chile’s Copa America win, much like Per suffered last season after Germany’s World Cup win.
With the defense looking solid, I’m sure that if we can get the attack back to its best or sharpest we will be flying and will go on a long unbeaten run and we will have a successful season.
Having said all that a few Mike Dean’s of our own would be the easiest fix, would it not. But who wants to be one of those teams.
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20 hours later: Yesterday Costa and Chelsea won the battle but the war is only two months old. The universal disgust with which Diego Costa is now held may well become a millstone that will dog Chelsea until the end of this season or it may be a media kerfuffle for one week. Fact is however there are at least 7.5 months to go. As City vs West Ham demonstrated there are many twists and turns ahead. Six games into the season it is useful to remember that form comes and goes but quality prvails in the end. There are many teams that are like a supernova, exploding with energy only to fragment and die through the slog of winter and beyond. 18 years of consisteency under Wenger is a large enough body of data for us to draw conclusions as to who will be there or thereabouts come spring.
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george, i blame gabriel. i’ll rather he kicked him real hard or punch him hard and get sent off than just a simple tap on the shin. it reminds me or gervinho’s red against newcastle and diaby’s as well. if you want to retaliate, you better do it very well. my proudest moment since supporting arsenal was not when we won the title unbeaten but when vieira, keown and lauren manhandled RVN. yes they were purnished but i was proud of their bravery that day.
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well if Dean’s match report state he seen all the Costa incidents, and so means the FA can not charge Costa, then Dean needs to be suspended from the BPL ref list for good, as he is clearly not fit to ref at this level.
So the BPL will have two options when the review the contents of the refs match report
1. Suspend Costa
2. Suspend Dean
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In the cold light of day maybe you can blame Gab, but taking the incidents yesterday into context,blame is harsh. As for the referee, once suspended from the pgmol for links to a gambling firm, if you look at his history, he clearly has an issue with Arsenal, or he is acting on behalf of someone who does. Even if you ignore the gab incident, he also booked chambers for winning the ball in pretty much his first tackle.
This ref was out to do us yesterday, and not for the first time. the only real relevant question is why. And why do we get him five or six times a season, along with the likes of Taylor and Atkinson, when some refs, we hardly see at all.
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spot on Mandy, the question is why do AFC get certain refs, who seem to have a bias against us, so often and get other even handed refs so little.
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I shall say it again that I am not blaming Gabriel –
in fact I have decided It is Kosc’s fault as when Costa knocked him off his feet the correct thing to do was stay down clutching his ribs/back ( both of which could sustained serious damage from Costa’s unprovoked and unexpected barge). At that point the Arsenal medical team would have rushed from the bench to treat our stricken centre back, ideally I would have expected to see the stretcher being called on – it was only a few seconds before Ht – at which point Mr Dean would have had a decision to make in relation to what colour card to award Senor Costa.
Only joking
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Unbelievably kind to dean saying he was just inconsistent. His record against us, for thats what it is against, is quite clear. For a top four side to have a win rate when he is in charge of only 6% is not inconsistent.
However much Dean is biased against us we must also look at the frequentcy of refs making ( human) errors when we’re playing chelski. Cahill not getting sent off, the Chambers booking and the fabregas hand ball in the area all in one game suggest something more sinister.
The strange thing is since this club have become chelski just a decade ago a remarkable about of game changing decisions have gone their way. Each one on their own seemingly innocuous but game changes and wrong none the less. From the early Drogba offside goal given when a young ARSENAL were on top and then the Kolo and ADE sending offs to compound measures.
Many will say its just conspiracy theories however when something happens regularly enough over a long period of time it’s only logic to perceive that something is bent.
I see many people on twitter are already suggesting that we should ignore the incidents and just look at the result of another defeat but I’m sorry to ignore the journey when you’ve got to any destination probably means you won’t be able to find your way back there again.
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I prescribe more to the cock-up theory of history than the conspiracy theory aob – and I could have been a lot more cruel to Dean. However the killer issue for me is not that he carded Gabby or even Santi. I might not like it but I can follow his reasoning – but that he did not red card Costa for the 83 minutes – or however long the bastard lasted.
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video of the part Dean played in Costa’s thuggery yesterday, very revealing.
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SuburbanGöönerChris @SuburbanGooner 17h17 hours ago
Wait, today’s result was Wenger’s fault??? What would Pep or Klopp do? Bring on another ref???
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Mandy @ 12:26 pm – Mike Dean has never been associated with any gambling mob/syndicate to the best of my knowledge. Clattenberg was accused of taking a junket at the expense of some dodgy outfit, I recall. That’s about it, so far. Being factual is central to our credibility.
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an interesting piece about Dean reffing AFC games,
http://thearsenalhistory.com/?p=12064
with stats such as – up to oct 2nd 2004 AFC had won all 11 games they had Dean as a ref, but from nov 6th 2004 we have only managed 13 wins out of 46 games
Also for some strange reason we have had Dean ref 4 BPL games in each of the last 3 seasons and 6 the season before, so we only can expect to have him 3 to 5 more times in the BPL this season, oh goody. By the way we seem to have him for a lot of games v Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea and Spurs, total of 24 games, yet we have never had him for Liverpool or Everton
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We don’t have Dean for Liverpool and Everton because Dean lives on Merseyside Eddy
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ok, thanks anicoll.
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After Watching the replay few times, couldn’t find any foul for the first goal free kick.
Can you?
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Saints to take three points here – just listened to van Gaal come out with some total gibberish – not long now before people begin to look a bit more carefully at his bullshit
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Mandy Dodd – My apologies. You are correct indeed. Dean does have dodgy links with gamblers and was suspended by the PGMOL. A good friend of this blog, dupsffokcuf, just shared with me the following link: http://t.co/N0MELeDxFL
Hat tip to both of you.
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Shotta
Deano “gambling” suspension. Note the timing, and when he started to screw up arsenal:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/4301613.stm
Mind you, there’s apparently nothing wrong with gambling. Matches are moved around to suit gambling. Stokes boss runs bet365, blah blah blah.
Straight as a dye.
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Great Chaplin video, Edu. Thanks.
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What’s up family! Its bern too long.
My apologies for my absence. In a tough place at the moment. My mom is quite sick and could pass any moment.
I remain confident that Jesus has a better place for her after this life, so i am filled with peace and hope. Better for her to move on rather than suffer, though i will miss her.
Just wanted to let you all know, as you all are important to me.
I will be around!
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Ah yes, Ramsey’s “foul” that led to the goal. See if you can spot it. (Approx 5 seconds in):
http://arsenalist.com/f/2015-16/chelsea-vs-arsenal/chelsea-goal-off-fk-incl-ramsey-foul.html
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Remember Dean’s “get in” type celebration when spuds scored?:
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Paul-N
Thanks for checking in. Sorry to hear about your mother.
Peace to you and your family.
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is it crazy to think that a fix is in? The “spectacle” we saw yesterday is sadly one we’ve seen before. If the BPL is meant to be the best in the world, repeats of the takedown like yesterday can ‘t be happening.
Thanks AN5 and Steww for the articles, they’re very enjoyable.
As for not letting Dean ref the Liverpool or Everton games, what’s the fear, that he’d be impartial…what is it that you Brits say”you’re having a laugh”?
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Is it premature to say Southampton doesn’t look the same force like last year?
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PaulN – Glad to hear from you. Sorry to hear about your Mom. You have our best wishes.
PS; Loomer will be happy to know you are still around.
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No worries Shotta, maybe not so widely known……like a lot of things with the pgmob. A ref has to be cleaner than clean, he should not be allowed this line of work with that hanging over him. Everything about this so called referee stinks, especially when it comes to Arsenal. Wenger is limited in what he can say, although he did speak firmly yesterday. I think his well chosen words may yet come back to haunt Chelsea and Costa , or at least I hope so. But if our execs, and I include Ivan Gazidis who sits on every committee going are prepared to let this happen without at least having words behind the scenes, and with the ref performances we get, there is scant evidence they are acting, then I can only conclude maybe our board lack ambition in the way their critics suggest. Do they take the top four money for granted? If so, despite our excellent manager, they shouldn’t, these clowns we get so regularly are perhaps a greater threat to our top four place than opponents. I do not believe any other major club would put up with the performances we are regularly on the end of. Many would subscribe to cockup over conspiracy, and quite reasonable so, but this just happens too often to this team, and the refs that treat us the worst are consistently the ones we see the most.
For anyone that has visited Untold Arsenal, Andrew Crawshaw does a ref preview for our games, he is usually spot on, probably to the extent you could make money on many of his predictions, but his Chelsea preview was uncannily accurate.
Ivan, over to you.
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1886 @1886_blog 1h1 hour ago
Arsenal fans moaning that we didn’t sign Martial, are the same cunts that moan when Wenger invests in youth. Utter hypocrites.
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What an odd game at St Marys – Saints totally on top for the first half hour, 1-0 up and could have been more, then Manyoo get a goal despite the pass forward to Mata who is clearly offside. Then Saints shoot themselves in foot with kamikazi back pass from Yoshida 1-2.
Then Mancs actually play a bit of football to make it 1-3 before they in turn bottle it and Saints bring it back to 2-3.
Usual shite from vanGaal and he did not appear to realise his win came from a poor linesman’s decision and a serious opposition error.
I am looking forward to the 4th October – these mugs, and the Dutch über mug in charge, are there for the taking
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Rantetta and Shotta, thank you much!
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Red shark – for some reason decided no doubt in the 1880s referees in professional football do not officiate games involving clubs near to their homes. In the age of so called professional match officials that is bizarre but there you go.
Spare a thought for Sunlun and Newcastle fans though – Clattenburg and Michael Oliver are both from the North East so never ref their games leaving them with a constant diet of Dean, Atkinson etc
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well Dean certainly did not see Gabriel kick Costa
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I think Anicoll was biting his lip whilst writing that. Thanks anyway. There has to be an inquest into the referee’s performance. Just about all pundits on all channels were shocked, appalled or disgusted by Dean’s performance. Yet, I expect silence from the PGMOL…..
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You know mean George – I’m always biting something
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The pgmol will try and bury this under Dean already having given Costa a yellow. However, for once, the media have jumped on a ref doing us, and the petition , now nearly 48000 is getting a lot of coverage on news outlets. All the sort of publicity and scrutiny Riley really does not want. Apparently this hasn’t gone down worldwide either. This incident makes the referee look either weak or corrupt and does no favours to Chelsea either. I suspect they will stop giving us Dean for Chelsea and go back to giving us Atkinson instead, if you google Atkinsons record when refereeing Chelsea over the years, you will see my point!
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Paul-N
So good to see you here. I’m terribly sorry about your mother. Prayers for peace and comfort for her and for you.
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Thanks Andy
a dirty job but someone had to do it (write up the match report I mean).
Deano’s been a wind up merchant for Arsenal players for years.
We’re not the only club to have suffered – who was it who called him the most arrogant prick he’s ever seen in the game? But the stats don’t lie – he’s clearly poisonous to Arsenal.
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Thanks Andy Nic. Top work and very useful. I haven’t yet seen the game (and not sure I can bring myself to) so thanks for putting the actual football in perspective. Glad we played well in places, and glad the first half was a decent show.
It seems to me that this season is turning out to be an exciting one. No one yet has put together an extended run of form to open up clear water, one or two clubs seem to be punching above their weight, but might struggle to maintain that form, one or two big clubs have yet to really hit their straps. All the bold predictions before the start of the season have been knocked sideways by the fact that it is a game involving real people and chance, as well as skill and confidence. Throw in an injury or three, a couple of fortuitous decisions and the vagaries of scheduling (the order you play clubs is always important) and you get what we have at the moment: an open league with all to play for. I would hope that the entire squad and all the coaches are fuming at the moment, and that they will turn this anger to good effect.
And I also think that one or two players now need to prove the manager correct when he suggested that it was hard to find an upgrade on them. He was right to say that, but at the moment he looks deluded for having done so, so far off their best form is the core of our team. Because whatever the provocation, whatever the reasons, the last two games look bad: sendings-off make the side look ill-disciplined and ragged, defeats make the side look weak. Fans get anxious and edgy and pundits sharpen their claws, and before you know it what erroneously seems to be the situation becomes the situation. The only way to combat that is with positivity, which means that the Milk Cup game on Wednesday has now assumed far greater importance than the club might have hoped for before the names came out of the hat.
And, as ever, the situation is ripe for someone to lay claim to status and reputation. I wonder who it might be.
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so who thinks Wenger will troll the AAA/WOB with his team selection for the COC game v Spurs on Wednesday and go with maybe all 11 changes
Ospina
Debuchy Chambers Mertesacker Gibbs
Arteta Flamini
Oxlade-Chamberlain Iwobi Campbell
Giroud
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I’m not sure who it is that says on here that the AAA/WOB are actually suffering from some form of mental illness, but the more I see from them the more I’m inclined to agree, over the weekend I’ve seen some very rabid WOB blame Wenger for the defeat, claim the sending off changed nothing, only delayed the defeat etc etc etc, yet these very same people are promoting the petition to have Dean never ref Arsenal again. It really cheers me up to see how daft they are, and how oblivious they are to their being self contradictory
We must understand why so many of them act in the way that the have over the Chelsea defeat, after all it follows on from Arsenal losing to Dynamo Zagreb and when you understand that many of those in a tizzy actually believe that Dynamo Zagreb is a “pub team”, “part timers”, “postmen and bakers”, and not actually a team on a 43 game unbeaten run, and are a club who have qualified for European competitions every season since 1960/61 season, and have won the Croatian league ten years in a row now. So once you understand how little knowledge these people have it is easier to understand their ramblings and tirades of abuse they aim at the club, the manager, the players and the board, its simply because they are as thick as pig shit.
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Andre Marriner has been appointed the Referee for Wednesday’s Capital Cup 3rd Round tie at spurs.
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something for the AAA/WOB to try
https://scontent-cdg2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10547703_10152604796578628_7512077994601538049_n.jpg?oh=f12c28fe640d6f4ee1c9cde1f33d1aa0&oe=569AEA54
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reports that Arsenal are to try and get Gabriel’s 3 game ban reduced to 1 or 2 games, said to be going to use the defense of him being provoked and also that his kick out did not have force or intent to injure.
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