The frenzy which greeted our defeat on Wednesday night was enough to put any reasonable person off the game for life. I steered clear of the blood letting and the bed wetting because I knew my masters would be cracking the whip and expecting the minimum word count from me this morning. Had I indulged in the orgiastic, self harming, feeding frenzy I know I couldn’t have faced the blog, the match or any of the silly over blown circus ever again.
The way we turn in on ourselves when we have no way of lashing outwards reminds me of my dogs. They spend their days on a giant cushion under the desk at which I am sat. They divide their time between snoozing and cat watch. If a moggie dare shows its face in the back garden they attack the glass conservatory panel with all the impotent fury of a driver giving the finger to the fast disappearing rear lights of a BMW which had dared to overtake.
Once the offending puss has strolled from view with a nonchalant disregard for the distant canine rage the dogs, by now beyond the point of reason, invariably turn on one another and snap and snarl and generally clash teeth and share a lot of drool. Occasionally fur flies but without exception they will eventually settle into their former state, carefully scrutinizing the lawn and fence posts for feline incursions.
I have done the self same thing. I can’t shout at the ref or opposition players, the only football fans I follow are Arsenal fans and the only Arsenal fans I follow are the positive realists. So who else do I have to sink my canines into? Once I’d seen the clear parallel with the dopey mutts beneath my desk I knew it had to stop. So after Wednesday I just faded Cheshire Cat like into the background with nothing but the faint glow of a snarl to betray my presence.
The only thing I can see to do after a defeat is look forward to the next match. The idea of fans falling out with one another over their opinions on our tactical shortcomings is too laughable for words. What on earth do they think their ideas count for? Who with any influence over the players will ever know or care what you or I think about Xhaka’s positional play or whether Walcott’s runs are exploited by his team mates? Who gives a damn what we think? No one who matters, no one with the power to effect practical change.
So I looked forward and closed my eyes and ears to the bellyaching. I looked forward to the next match and for once the fates were kind to us. Ideally we would have played Chelsea but Man City or Liverpool would do. Playing against our direct rivals is the perfect fixture following a defeat. It is a game of such significance as to wipe the memory of an Everton away day clean from the mind. It is, in the popular slang, a six pointer. We have the opportunity to record a famous victory which will make all the histrionics over the Goodison result seem silly in comparison.
Unless of course you believe that we have already fallen too far off the pace and are doomed to watch yet another rival lift the trophy in May. In which case surely you must approach every game in a thoroughly relaxed frame of mind. If it’s already too late to achieve anything positive then we are playing for fun and you can shrug off any loss and chuckle at every win. With nothing riding on the match you have nothing to get het up about have you?
In sport as in life it is vital that we taste the pain of defeat. The bitterness should insult the tongue. It is this experience alone which lends victory its unique piquancy. Should we bring home the three points this afternoon it will be all the sweeter for the context of our midweek disappointment.
Win, lose or draw I just wish there was some way for football fans to rediscover a little equilibrium. It isn’t your career on the line, you are no more invested in this than a bird watcher is in a falcon’s egg. Sure it’s disappointing if the chick gets so far only to fall from the nest, but you get to pack up your binoculars and go home for your tea don’t you? You can stand there and shout at the tiercel for choosing an inadequate nest site if it would make you feel better but really the best you can hope to achieve is attracting strange looks from that nice lady with the RSPB badge on her hat.
The problem with us football fans is we think we’re special. We think our hobby more important than others and that we therefore have a peculiar dispensation to behave like complete pricks when things don’t go our way. It’s chastening to get to fifty three years old and realise that for the last forty six years I have been deluding myself in this as in so many other aspects of my life.
Bad refereeing might be killing the game. TV money might be killing the game. Corruption in FIFA or the FA might be killing the game. But hysterical, bad tempered, self indulgent, childish supporting is also gnawing at the foundations with a quite frightening ferocity. I decided to give it another go today but if we lose and the reaction is as bad as I suspect it will be I’m going to struggle to join in again.
Positively Arsenal 
Thanks Ed, didn’t hear that about Ox being injured, hope he is ok.
As for mental strength, after this week,looks like this All Blacks sports psychologist has his work cut out!……..but from what a Kiwi friend of mine says about him, he may be just what is needed
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here’s a thing… [it’s also a fact]… IF there comes a day when Arsenal are relegated, fighting for relegation, mid table, knocked out of every cup first round, had to sell their best players to the point we were starting with 11 17year olds and a 51 year old ‘keeper, I’d still be going/watching/listening to whatever game was up next.
I believe most would
If folk become despondent when we are STILL in third place in prem, STILL in two cups (ok we haven’t played an FA cup game yet but hey) still a premiership team with a phenomenal squad equal at least to any we’ve had before, then please become despondent elsewhere. I’ll be buzzing Christmas Evening because we play a game on Boxing day and I’ll be going (if I wasn’t going I’d be watching/listening/refreshing my screen) and I’ll be enjoying it throughout. If we lose we lose but I’ll be there the next game too…ad infinitum. I’d have been buzzing if we’d beat City today and Everton the other day, we didn’t but bet your acorn against my truckload of acorns, I’ll be buzzing before the boxing day game and the new years day game and any other game until such time as I die/become too ill etc, wherever the fuck we are, in whatever division we’re in and whoever our manager or players are. If you allow those with less stomach for defeat than me, to affect you with their insidious disease of basic twattishfuckwitcockishness then make a decision not to care what they think, but what you want to think and feel and feel it
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Red Alert! For the 2nd half of the game we could not control of the game defensively and offensively. It is a deep worry.
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one Wenger excuse I would question is him saying our drop in physical level is down to the amount of games played. yes Cech, Monreal, Kos, Coquelin, Ozil, Walcott and Alexis, have played in nearly all our BPL games, and in most cl games too, but how many of them could not have been rotated more, a good arguement can be made for not rotating kos, Coquelin, Ozil and Alexis, but Cech has got CL and EFL games off, and Monreal is not in the sort of form this season that suggests that Gibbs could not have been given more game time, I see little difference in game levels from theo and alexis and both still seem full of running. Yes, Ozil in the last two games has been very poor, don’t know if that is physical, I thought v Everton he covered a lot of ground, but his passing was off, maybe that was down to physical levels and I would say if it is, then maybe we would have been better to leave him out.
So if Wenger is correct and our drop in physical levels is down to the amount of game time, then he is responsible for most of it, as Ospina, gibbs, Elneny, Lucas and Giroud and maybe one or two others could be said to have been under used. And don’t get me started on the “no subs till 70 minutes” thing.
As I stated earlier, to me it looks like our drop in physical levels seems to have more to do with it being a response or lack of response to a set back in games. Is after we let in a goal, players getting in a panic and hoofing a ball out of play or up in the air and things like that, a physical thing, or a psychological thing, I tend to go with the latter.
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ianspace I’m glad you mentioned goalie error, as I was watching Juve v Roma yesterday, and the star man was our very own Szczesny, and I could not help but feel that the lad should still be our no.1 keeper. Cech is not the prime Cech, and if Szczesny or Ospina was after having the 18 months Cech has had for us, they would be getting slaughtered.
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What a fuck up. Perhaps we are just not as good as we think? Under 80%pass completion? Why? How? I don’t get it.
I really don’t.
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shotta the second half performance today was shocking, we will never know how much that was down to conceding a goal only a couple of minutes in, how much that goal deflated us, and how much it inspired city, but whatever the effect of that goal, it really is a worry that we had no response to it, even though it was only a leveling goal, the game was still there to be won. Also when we did go behind we never looked like getting a goal, if I’m not mistaken, we actually only had the one shot on target all day, theo’s goal.
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JB™ @gunnerpunner 1h1 hour ago
Coquelin completed 15 passes in 75 minutes
Elneny completed 13 passes in 12 minutes
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By talkSPORT – @talkSPORT
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Arsene Wenger has bemoaned the poor refereeing decisions which have cost Arsenal victories in their last two Premier League matches.
After losing to Everton on Tuesday – a game in which the Gunners should have won a penalty in the dying stages – the North London outfit were defeated by Manchester City on Sunday evening.
Theo Walcott put Wenger’s men in front early in the first half, but City fought back in the second period, Leroy Sane levelling the game before Raheem Sterling netted the winner.
image: http://cloud-video.unrulymedia.com/native/in-art-countdown-icon-128x128x3s.gif?d=1482089626143222398.59764408742
image: http://video.unrulymedia.com/native/in-art-soundanimation-icon-41×48.gif
But both goals were contentious, with the Gunners on the end of two potentially uncalled offsides.
Sane’s leveller was undoubtedly offside, as the German winger was beyond the last defender when he ran onto the ball, but Sterling’s winner was a harder call to make.
David Silva moved towards Sterling’s shot, potentially blocking Petr Cech’s view from an offside position, but there was no call to claim the goal was unlawful.
And Wenger insists technology must be on the cards now, as it is unacceptable for such a high-profile match to be decided by incorrect decisions.
Speaking to talkSPORT, the Frenchman said: “I’m of course very disappointed we failed in the two games this week.
“It’s unacceptable to have two offside goals in a game of that stature.
“It’s a game in which we were in control and enough is enough with recent decisions going against us.
“It happened on Tuesday, it happens today… It’s difficult to swallow.”
“I’ve been for technology for a long time.
“But when the players are five yards offside and it’s still not given it’s difficult to understand.”
Both losses, to Everton and City, came after the Gunners had taken the lead then dropped off in the second half.
And Wenger believes there is both a physical and mental aspect to the game which has held Arsenal back.
He continued: “I feel the two games have been a bit similar as we’ve been in control and nobody could imagine we’d lost the game
– but we lost it.
“So I feel there is a physical element in it, yes. We dropped physically in the second half, and maybe mentally as well.
“City got much more enthusiasm when it got to 1-1. It’s so disappointing to lose a game of that stature.”
Read more at http://talksport.com/football/listen-arsene-wenger-tells-talksport-enough-enough-bad-refereeing-costs-arsenal-victory#pEzhVRe1pdoQFw4O.99
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1 game in the next fortnight and then 3 games in 6 days, fixture madness.
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Nice One Alex Iwobi @AFC_Bam 1h1 hour ago
Probably the only three players to come out of the game today with any credit are Mustafi, SANTI and Ramsey.
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Is this a good time to remind how essential Caz is to our patterns of play? And if he is not there, Rambo can do similar….when match fit…..as can Jack…..starting to see a problem?
Think Xhaka is an excellent player, but doesn’t know our patterns of play as well as the aforementioned three do…..well he wouldn’t would he, he has only been here a few months.
The way we play in most games, we need a play maker, or even a box to box/play maker alongside a more defensive minded CMF. Without a Caz type, Ozil has to hunt for the ball, and not to put to fine a point, ends up knackering himself over time…..or even over a game. A knackered ozil seriously affects our attacking prowess, which in turn gives teams confidence to attack us. Losing Caz Jack Rambo has a bit of a butterfly effect on this team. Good to see Jack doing well, but as it turns out , think him not being here is a mistake, if an understandable one, considering Caz is nearly 32 with underlying issues, Rambo is very injury prone this season.
Surprised we didn’t see Perez today, but maybe Ox being injured scuppered that?
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well mandy on not seeing lucas, it was odd that when ox got injured we did not bring lucas on for him, one attacker for another, instead we brought on a cm, we were in need of a goal, and we replaced an attacker with a midfielder, odd decision.
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Ian:
Wanted to give you a like for that comment. Enough that I decided to forge ahead and sign up for word press.
All: what the hell is wordpress on about asking me what my site is about etc?
I just wanna be able to like comments, for fucks sake. Can’t even get past step two of six. Did you all have to pretend you’ve got your own site or something, or am I being a digital fuckwit again?
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RYO_cleverfish @RYO_cleverfish 2h2 hours ago
Coq only had a 57% passing accuracy% today
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rich I had all that trouble too when i first signed up to it, but don’t ask me how I got round it as i haven’t a clue, think anicol or shotta helped me sort it out.
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ArsenalAndrew @ArsenalAndrew 2h2 hours ago
So @SkySports basically saying the offside rule doesn’t apply where @Arsenal are concerned.
And they wonder why people stream illegally.
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Eduardo
Cheers. Feel a little better knowing that. Now i just have to hope I didn’t annoy those fine fellows too much with my ref whinging…
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Get French Football @GFFN 1h1 hour ago
Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger extremely critical of refereeing on French TV tonight.
Get French Football @GFFN 1h1 hour ago
Wenger: “We’re very unlucky with refereeing decisions at the moment. The 2 goals we conceded today were offside. It is difficult to accept.”
Get French Football@GFFN
Wenger: “I think there is a serious problem with refereeing in England. I think they’re in a comfort zone… they don’t work enough.” (SFR)
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JB™ @gunnerpunner 38m38 minutes ago
It’s not contradictory to say the following:
We were shit
We didn’t deserve anything from the game
Both their goals were offside
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‘WE’VE HAD AN ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE WEEK’
Arsène Wenger could not hide his frustration on Sunday after we let a lead slip for the second time in five days.
on how disappointing the result was…
I felt we were in control and it didn’t look like we could lose the game. [In the first half] we stopped them from creating chances, they looked a little bit short of ideas to create chances, but they caught us cold in the second half. But as well we dropped physically in the second half. And when we won the ball we didn’t come out as clean as in the first half.
on the equaliser…
We certainly gave them hope with the 1-1. We dropped a bit physically in the second half and maybe mentally as well when they equalised. After that we tried to come back in the last 20 minutes. We were a bit unlucky on one or two occasions but they killed the game well. They know they have experience, they slowed down, went down and it was difficult to create the [chances]. On top of all of that we conceded two offside goals, what is very difficult to accept in a game of that stature. But as it is well-known, the referees are protected very well, and that is right, like the lions in the zoo. So we have to live with those decisions.
on the referees…
I want them to be very well protected, I want them to be safe. But if they could make the right decisions that would be even better. Safe and good decisions, even better. I do not want to make the referees the subject of the press conference. I just feel it’s right that they are safe and protected but if on top of that they make the good decisions, even better. It’s difficult to lose a game of that stature on two offside goals and I can understand City are very happy, I would be as well, but I think the goals are offside.
on losing a lead twice in a row…
First of all, we’ve played many games. We’ve played four games away from home out of the last five. We had one day less recovery at Everton than everybody else. We played in Basel, we played against Stoke on Saturday, then we played at Everton on Tuesday night. I feel there are plenty of big teams who don’t play in Europe who could have played on Tuesday, and we could have played on Wednesday. I think it’s a bit the accumulation of games we’ve played recently, particularly away from home.
on why he was upset with Cech at the end…
I was upset because I don’t see with 20 seconds to go why you would play a short free-kick when you could get the ball in the box. The referee took advantage of stopping the game on the first short pass, but he would have let the ball be played into the box. Why should we need to make a short pass? We know there’s a risk there that the referee takes advantage of it.
on what’s wrong with the Ox…
He’s injured. It looks like a hamstring – it’s a muscular problem.
on if we can bridge a nine-point gap…
We have to come back next week and win our game. I think we’ve had an absolutely horrible week and what is worse is that out of two good performances, you get zero points. And out of two leading positions, we lost two games. That of course is very disappointing. Before we think about the nine points, we have to come back and be realistic. For a while we have not kept a clean sheet, and if you want to play at the top you have to keep clean sheets.
Copyright 2016 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20161218/-we-ve-had-an-absolutely-horrible-week-#LUwHK54M32PkA2Pr.99
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reports that only Petr Cech and Hector Bellerin made the effort to applaude the Arsenal traveling supporters after todays game, the rest of the team just trotted off the pitch.
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Mandy. I fear the main problem is we have a bit of a 4,2; 4, or 6:4 spilt in terms of defending and attacking.
For all Theo’s improvements in the defensive side, I still think that only covers some aspects. Then Sanchez, an expert hustler in advanced areas. Iwobi trying hard to get better at defending but still average or worse at it. Ozil well below average at most defensive sides of the game.
When a team, a decent one like Everton or a better one, get their tails up, get momentum and pour forward with serious intensity and intent, we can quickly find ourselves right up against it.
We might happen to find a way to make use of the space that gives us, but we might well not.
Unfortunately, the Chelsea set up, which typically sees a 7:3 split, just looks a better fit for premier league life. At 1-0 up in a big game, you’d expect them to have a great shape in the early minutes of the second half and for it to take a lot to get through them. Today, offside of not, that 1st was horribly simple, and didn’t feel like some anomaly.
Wenger’s commitment to the hope attacking players can usually win the day is surely total. If those 4 attacking players were about 5% less good, overall, at attacking, we might well opt for a more defensive-minded approach, but just when the doubt seems to reach critical levels, they’ll normally produce something which makes the doubting look foolish. If they were 5% better, we’d prob be league favourites.
Maybe Cazorla is so good he allows it to work; likewise, maybe Mustafi is significantly better than the pretty good, at worst, Gabriel.
I dunno. Proper depressed at the same time as feeling strangely better than after Everton and better set to avoid my own personal woe.
Can’t stress enough though how important I feel it is to avoid most of the talk this week, as I feel it could be worst yet and criticism will plunge to new depths.
Is football life the pits if you’re not quite champion material but nevertheless produce a lot of lovely stuff and will probably finish in the top four? Nope. But still, the tantalisations, and the desire to stick it to those who have produced so much unfair or ridiculous criticism…
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I can say this here because I know it wont go any further.
Ozil is the problem.
His game is to float around the pitch seeking out pockets of space. This is sensational when we have a solid MF pair that control the game, but when we dont it leaves us with 3(or more) v 2 in MF. We get overrun, and end up just booting it anywhere because of the lack of options. There being none because Ozil is in some space somewhere that the rest can’t find him in. He is effectively MIA, not that he isn’t trying, he has just done his Ozil thing.
I feel when Ramsey played wide right last year, that fixed the problem, because he came into MF and made up the numbers.
My solution would be to play Xhaka, ElNeny and Ramsey in MF, Move Ozil wide left(our most problematic position anyway) but allow him to drift, with Theo and Alexis playing more as a 2.
It all sounds very easy, I know, I also know if a fuckwit like me can think this up, Arsene will have considered it and rejected it because of reasons beyond my comprehension.Still, something needs to change-somewhere?
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Evening boys and girls – I suspect some people thought a few games ago redundancy beckoned for PA
The fools
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I see Wenger’s comments about refs being like lions in the zoo has gone right over the heads of journos, pundits, malcontents and many fans alike,
for me its clear Wenger is comparing refs to zoo lions in so much that the refs are on display but don’t have to either work for their living or explain anything they do, and any mistake the make does not have an impact on them, as they are protected from any consequences, the bpl ref list is a closed shop, and they all know that they can get away with wrong decisions like we have seen in our last two games, it may have cost AFC 6pts, but neither clattenburg, nor atkinson nor any of their team, will suffer any harm for it, there will be no poachers hunting them for their hides. Just the next crowd of fans to gaze at them prancing about the zoo enclosure.
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Keenos @KeenosAFC 24m24 minutes ago
Surely by now people realise AFTV is semi-scripted? They all get the special bus to games together, sit together, etc
Robbie pays for tickets & the special bus for all the regulars who appear in it. They need to be “extreme” so that he keeps putting them on
If your videos stop getting the hits, he stops putting you on. Stops paying for your tickets. Stops paying for your travel.
its a soap opera, a replacement for eldorado
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FK³ @fkhanage 3h3 hours ago
Our league fixtures until Chelsea at The Bridge: West Brom (h), Crystal Palace (h), Bournemouth (a), Swansea (a), Burnley (h) & Watford (h).
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See wengers point, the refs are not accountable, unlike himself and his players.
Don’t really blame the ref today, but we certainly have not had the rub of the green , that some have had.
Not sure Ozil is a problem so much, but maybe , like others, he needs a bit of rotation. But he didn’t get a huge amount of service today.
Cazorla is a miss, but so is a fully fit Ramsey, especially in his absence. I fear injuries are a major factor behind this week……Mustafi. And that’s not a great excuse either
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Danny @The_GFP 2h2 hours ago
Just done some statistical Arsenal based analysis
Arsenal win 50% of the fan base are happy
Arsenal lose 50% of the fan base are delighted
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looking at those stats of cech’s kicks today, it does seem to have been an odd tactic to king long when we did not have giroud up front, it was just giving the ball back to city.
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Think Cech needs his old GK coach back!
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tyranny, yes tyranny, that is what is going on at Arsenal, I kid you not, I’ve just seen how Arsenal is run described as tyranny. First fucking laugh I’ve had since city scored their first offside goal today. tyranny, oh lord take me now, as I’ve seen it all.
“For somehow this is tyranny’s disease, to trust no friends.”
― Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound
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Mandy as I said earlier, we need our old keeper Szczesny back.
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Goonerholic @TheGoonerholic Dec 17
Same referees week in, week out. We need a new organisation or change the leadership of the PGMOL that has been created.
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Won’t happen Ed, the FA are supposedly guardians of the game in this country, but in effect, the EPL , not the….beyond useless….FA …run the PGMOL…….the EPL and PGMOL even veto FA attempts on retrospective action against divers…together. Whatever the PGMOL are or are not doing is at the behest of the EPL…..perhaps that’s why Wenger is saying refs are too protected. And let’s face it, Mike Riley is not the PGMOL head ……..based on his refereeing, management, or communications skills ,but he clearly pleases someone in power, and he did help Fergie end a nice little run Wenger had going.
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so Monday’s sport pages are full of Wenger having a go at the PGMOL, what will be the result – other than a charge and fine for Wenger for bringing the game into disrepute.
1. Arsenal will get better treatment from the refs
2. Refs will wage all out war on Arsenal, even more dodgy decisions, penalties against, yellow and red cards etc
some on here have asked the question a few times recently as to why AFC have not done more to highlight our poor treatment from officials, not only this season but for many a long season, and I think in the coming days, weeks and months you will have your answer.
We will see no journo or media outlet, no pundit, actually research and do a proper in depth analysis piece on the PGMOL or on the one sided way Arsenal are treated.
But we will see many sarcastic and dismissive comments and articles about Wenger’s comments.
There will be a full on defense of the standards of refs and the PGMOL.
I fully expect many more clear penalty calls to go against Arsenal, more “soft” penalties awarded against us, more close offside calls to go against us, more easy yellows and reds for arsenal, more “leaving the foot in” on our players to be ignored. Don’t be surprised if Rio Ferdinand gets his way and we see Alexis have defenders “smash the life out of him”.
I hope I’m wrong, and that Wenger’s comments actually see a real change from the PGMOL, but I really don’t see it happening, it did not happen after Diaby, it did not happen after Eduardo, it did not happen after Ramsey, so I can’t see a non award of a penalty v Everton or 2 offside goals v city, making any difference to the PGMOL and its minions
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well mandy when you see not a single word of fuss made by the media over the comments by Richard Scudamore the chairman of the BPL, that the BPL need Man Utd to be a regular success, then why would any of us expect anything to change with how the game is run in England. Is Rojo avoiding red cards cos the PGMOL know that the leagues chairman says we need a successful utd, are they doing it cos the vast majority of the refs are from up north, are the bias without any help, are the corrupt, or are they just incredibly inept.
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well going by the offside laws I think both city goals offside, below is a link to the offside laws
slide 8 city’s first goal is offside – offside if any part of the head, body or feet are nearer the goal than the second last defender, only arms do not count, all replays showed Sane’s foot put him offside
slide 21 city’s second goal offside – a player in an offside position (Silva), makes a movement or gesture (he made a kicking motion towards the ball), that distracts or deceives the opponent (cech)
Click to access law_11_offside_en_47383.pdf
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Ed…..certainly looks offside, and interfering with play.
I suspect you are right than our treatment from refs will now get even worse, tho if we concede too many more pens, we will be moving into record breaking territory.
But Wenger is a smart, considered and measured man, this was no off the cuff rant, those words were said for a reason.maybe he wants our board and the influential IG to stand the clubs cause a bit more?
Mike Riley reportedly hates news, publicity and any communication, so he will not be pleased at this.
But if the refs get even worse with us, they will raise a lot of suspicion.
I sense Wenger is calculatedly upping the anti, it may highlight issues, it may put a rocket up the collective arses of our execs if they want Wenger to remain as manager, or it may go horribly wrong. If the last scenario comes to pass, I suspect sadly, we will be looking for a new manager this summer
Wengers words…enough is enough…..sounds telling to me, sounds like he knows exactly what is going on, has for whatever reason has elected, or been made to stay
silent, but the boundaries of acceptability have been reached.
Potentially Great news of course for our WOB fans ….and wider non arsenal interests who want Wenger out
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http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-soccer-england-gazidis-idUKBRE87409I20120805
Above shows some of the roles of our CEO in the game…..ok 2012, but have not read anything has changed. Quite an influential chap.
IF , as Wenger says , and what some of us who watch them believe, Arsenal are suffering at the hands of …refs who are , in his words, too protected and do not work hard enough…..you have to ask why such an influential CEO from a family who have shown true strength and character in relatively recent years in South Africa…….would be silently letting this happen?
Wenger has now, in my view, quite calculatedly ,highlighted things, so IG cannot just ignore and hope they go away.
Maybe IG genuinely sees nothing wrong, maybe he fears exposure will make things worse for the club, maybe he feels powerless….but he shouldn’t with the above list, maybe he is being political, maybe he is silenced from financially concerned sources from above.
But you are right Ed, think in coming weeks, we are going to find out more about this strange situation
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New post up
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