Good morning Positive Arsenal fans,
Let me get the grudging congratulations out of the way first to our opponents last night. Over two legs we encountered a team of the highest quality. If it was destined to be our largest ever defeat in the Champions League and at the Emirates we were ruthlessly despatched by a team likely to feature in the final of the competition, at least.
Of the game ? We were very good for 54 minutes. Not ‘good’ in a clinging-on, denying Bayern by the skin of our teeth kind of way but playing fast, creative football. Our first half performance was not down to one or two exceptional performances by Arsenal players, but a genuine team effort, front to back. A special word of praise however for young Hector. Not quite been in top form for a few weeks but best player on the pitch in the opening 45. We opened up the Germans on four occasions. Manuel Neuer, fine keeper that he is, seems oddly accident prone at the Emirates. Had more then one of those chances been put away then “what if …. ?”. Against a team of Bayern’s quality to fail to convert half chances into goals is surely the path to defeat. And so it proved.
Now we reach the 54th minute, and a gentleman who the mainstream media tell me goes by the name of Charalambos Kalogeropoulos. The official burst into the footballing limelight in a most unexpected fashion. Now I do not know about you but the goal line assistant, an invention of Sepp Blatter in his relentless battle against technology, has not much featured in my football watching. I do not understand what they do, or are supposed to do, and because we see and hear so very little of them I suspect they are a vague about it themselves. See no evil, speak no evil et cetera.
Nevertheless the man insisted that the referee convert a yellow card, to a red card. And if I live to be a very old person I will not understand why. Ruined the contest, sank any conceivable chance of recovery on our part, and caused me to drink far more red wine than I would normally do on a Tuesday night. At least my wounds are self inflicted.
At 1-1 in truth I’d say the game was just about done, and would have been done, even with 11v11. A man advantage and our balloon punctured the final 35 minutes saw our lads dismembered in a professional, relentless fashion.
Could we have put ten men behind the ball and battled for a more respectable 2-1, 3-1 or 4-1 ? Would my work this morning have been easier had the defeat been of smaller proportion ? I dunno. And to be honest I don’t care. We play as we play.
Right then, enough of this wallowing in self pity. I spy a FA Cup quarter final on Saturday against Lincoln, who I can never recall seeing before in the flesh. I shall be there, making a noise, enjoying the game. And then there is the little matter of 12 Premier League games, amongst which are some tasty contests.
It is not all bad – enjoy your Wednesdays.
Positively Arsenal 
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Messi Minutes @MessiMinutes 3h3 hours ago
Spurs reveal that their new stadium, initially quoted at £400m, is now expected to cost them around £800m. Brexit has added 20% alone!
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Arsenal and Bayern have been charged by uefa, Bayern for their fans displaying a banner protesting about ticket prices before the game, and for their fans throwing toilet paper on the pitch at the start of the game, and Arsenal for allowing the streaker on the pitch.
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almost as stupid a penalty decision as last nights one, and barcelona are only one goal behind with 40 minutes to play.
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Cavani scores, Barca now need 3 more
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Barca should get 10 men behind the ball – they risk total humiliation otherwise
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why are they down to ten men
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ha ha ha, another barca penalty, neymar scores, 5-5, barca have added on time to get the goal the need to go through
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barca do it, 6-5
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Looking like a vacancy at PSG in May (banned everything)
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Fancy going for the win eh ?
Sheer foolishness
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PSG will be offering Wenger mega money to be their manager
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Haha. PSG.
2 dubious penalties though. First one was ridiculous. Barca really dive a lot.
PSG lost it anyway.
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Hate to see these cheating divers happy but PSG just lost it. And with the money and players they have. Hah.
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No leaders on the pitch
No mental strength
Schoolboy defending
Shocking performance from PSG
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Anyway referee I thought was pretty good. The goal line assistant though. No idea what he was thinking.
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Oh dear me
0-0 at the Etihad
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Another blank sheet for Pep’s Misfiring Misfits
He doesn’t really ‘get’ Stoke on a Wednesday evening.
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city 6pts ahead of afc, but we have a game in hand
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So Bayern, Real Madrid and Barca are through – surprise, surprise, the usual suspects have their way paved to the final stages. CL beyond the group stage is a bit of a joke and waste of time for everyone else.
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liam brady says arsene has to make up his mind by end of the month, and that there is a contract offer there.
The ozil and alexis contract situation is a concern.
Contract offer for wenger on the table, up to him to decide
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that stomach flu Ozil had last week, seemingly has spread to more of the squad, iwobi and welbeck both missed yesterday’s game with it, and reports say others at the club have it too.
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Did Tottenham sneak their Chef in to do lasagne?
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Two days, two games with big scores, and massive interventions by officials.
Can’t they just get back to refereeing games rather than trying to influence outcomes
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3 weeks ago PSG’s players, Rabiot, Draxler and Veratti, were the be all and end all for the AFC malcontents, oddly enough tonight, these same malcontents have not mentioned any one of the 3, let alone them all, Rabiot and Draxler we were told showed up Wenger as a ditherer, but tonight, Draxler taken off after making no impression, and Rabiot was awful all game.
of course the afc malcontents are now telling us that Barca are the be all and end all of football. But not a mentioned of two dodgy penalties either.
I seen someone say after the barca game that uefa have got what the wanted, Real, Barca and Bayern through, but that it will come back to bite them, as it will turn fans away in droves. But sorry, that will just not happen, awful bias decisions have been going on in the CL, and in the BPL for years and years, and there is not a single sign it is affecting the game or turning fans off. There are many reasons for this, not least, the bias decisions are for the biggest clubs, with the biggest stars, and big fan bases.
No fans of the clubs benefiting from the decisions see any reason to rock the boat. and Large sections of the fans of clubs who suffer from these bad decisions refuse to acknowledge that its going on, you have to look no further than Arsenal last night, whole sections of our fan base seen nothing wrong with the officials calls, not the walcott penalty incident, not the vidal foul on alexis, not the kos penalty incident and sending off, not the two late offside goals either,
no for them to admit that there is something rotten in the state of Denmark, would mean its not all wengers or the players fault.
Also as the media are unable or unwilling to highlight what is going on with reffing, and to a man those that report or pundit on football, say they seen no wrong decisions in the game, they seen no foul on walcott(although i did hear one commentator say it was a debatable decision that could have gone either way), they all to a man seen Kos shove Lewandoski, I’m thinking of making an appointment with an optician next week, as I, no matter how many times I’ve looked at it, just can not see kos shove him, I can though see Lew shove Kos and then dive.
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we are on a very bad run of results,
we have stomach flu in the camp
we have a media and a section of our fan base in a rabid wenger bashing expedition
we have a possible giant killing cup game coming up
and Anthony Taylor is appointed as ref
the very same Anthony Taylor who only a few weeks ago was the chief witness in having our manager get a 4 game ban.
the very same Anthony Taylor who has been suspended in the past for his inept reffing in an Arsenal game.
Once again we get a ref who was recently 4th official at one of our games, this is only the third game where it was possible for Taylor to be ref, since he helped have Wenger banned.
Untold did an article some time ago about how Arsenal keep getting refs who have been 4th official in recent games, at a far higher rate than any other BPL club. Their view, which I tend to agree with, is that its only human nature for a man who is the 4th official and getting an ear bashing from a manager one week, to let it affect his judgement towards that manager and team when he is the ref the next week.
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guardian sport reporting.
Arsenal board believe Arsenal will finish season strongly and Wenger can take the club forward next season, and they do not see an adequate replacement manager for Wenger available. Board is calm and a 2-year deal is still on table for Wenger.
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One major reason some refuse to see anything wrong with the refereeing in the English Premiership is because of the sincerely held belief that nothing in England is corrupt, that our sense of fair play is too deeply ingrained in our culture to permit anything so tawdry, so ‘beneath’ us.
Unfortunately this does tend to infer a degree of superiority on our part, possibly a hangover from the End of Empire, and with it the commensurate slur on Jonny Foriegner as being characteristic of the low-level behaviour one would naturally associate with our inferiors, I mean neighbours.
We naturally find it far easier to call out the likes of FIFA and UEFA, and games like tonight’s Barca and Tuesday’s Arsenal games do little to challenge our selective prejudice.
The appointment of Anthony Taylor for Saturday’s shock result is, quite frankly, too wonderful for words.
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Wonder how,they will see it if we don’t finish the season strongly?
Daily mirror saying Wenger will have to demonstrate he can change things before he gets a new contract.
A lot of conflicting guesswork out there in the media
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AA the thing is, most pundits and journos do admit that cheating goes on, in fact the strongly support it, of course they don’t call it cheating, they dress it up as
he bought the penalty
he was smart to win that penalty
he done a good job for his team conning the ref for that penalty
he went down easily
the defender was foolish to give him an opportunity to go down there
his manager would not thank him for staying on his feet
there was contact
he made the most of the contact
he was professional
etc etc etc
the sort of thing that those reporting on the game, working in the game, covering the game, fans(even of their own players) should be saying is
he is cheating,
he is a con artist
he is being dishonest,
he is breaking the rules,
he is a diving cheating toerag,
he should be banned for that
but that will never happen.
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I see the city v stoke game must have been a real exciting one for the fans, 3 shots on target in the entire game.
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FAO George
your twitter convo re attendances – from what I can gather the police figures do not include those that enter the stadium through the car parks. So not fully accurate at all.
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https://www.theguardian.com/football/that-1980s-sports-blog/2017/mar/08/arsenal-home-defeat-europe-spartak-moscow
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Settles down, opens the cap, pours the (much fuller than usual) glass, fires up the ‘puter, girds loins whilst casting an eye at the various blogs and news vendors, decides that after looking at what’s on offer, the pictures and rabid headlines to drink another glass. Notices along the way a paltry number of non-entities with a news-catching banner in front of an unbelievably beautiful and well-lit stadium. Idly thinks to self these individuals should live in Syria to put some perspective in their lives before simply heading here.
Along with the well documented and unique applications of The Football Rules as applied to The Arsenal, Brian Clough and Derby, and last nights “UNBELIEVABLE RESULT OMG” (cough cough thanks ref) proves that there is perhaps something else to ponder other than the fact that Mr Wegner is incapable of managing Chesham United FC (and no disrespect to them rest assured).
Finally perspective. Like Mr G.P. there are wonderful and fulfilling days after dubious results.
I really really hope he signs the contract.
Thank you.
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Eddie @ 12 56 am
Could not be a more accurate a comparison.
The ex-players/commentators would have gone crazy if the cheating had happened against them in their playing days – now it is a knowing chuckle and admiration for these antics.
I enjoyed the Barca v PSG game and the crowd were fantastic in their support, but the diving and cheating by Suarez and Neymar was way over the top.
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Arsenal FCVerified account @Arsenal 53m53 minutes ago
🗣️”We have uncertainties on Welbeck and Iwobi [due to sickness]. Everybody else should be available”
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Thought last night’s reaction to Barca game tremendously instructive. As well as the two dodgy pens given, both of which were cheating for me, there were another three blatant dives in the box.
Afterwards, nothing. A beaming glowing studio, full of praise for the victors. I could take it better if this is simply football now, post-morality; 80% football skills, the rest trying to fool a ref; but those same presenters will be moralising and sticking it to someone before long for a single act of gamesmanship.
I’ve thought for a long while, mostly through watching our games and comparing how we’re treated compared to others, that there’s barely a serious credible person among the commentators, pundits, journalists; that, for whatever reason, there’s no way you can trust them to react the same to two almost identical incidents, depending on game, players,etc.
Everything is malleable, about context; they really do fail in that basic and most essential thing you want from your, cough, proffesional football people- consistency and dealing with, at least partially, personal biases.
Last night was the ultimate proof. It can’t even have been about bias that time. More just wanting to enjoy the fantastic story, or fairy tale…maybe something about how people respond to big winners (probably related to how they see themselves), and what they’ll overlook for them.
Oh well, not like I’ve ever been mad enough to expect football to be the place to go for examples of fair play and the like. Still, definitely think the shoddiness has gone up a notch or two in last decade.
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Team news: Ozil, Welbeck and Iwobi
Arsène Wenger has revealed the latest team news update ahead of Saturday’s Emirates FA Cup quarter-final against Lincoln City.
The boss provided updates on Mesut Ozil, Danny Welbeck and Alex Iwobi and this is what he had to say:
on the latest team news…
I believe that we have two uncertainties: Welbeck, who had to come off after the warm-up against Bayern due to sickness, and Iwobi, who on the day of the game couldn’t turn up as well due to the same problem. Everyone else should be available.
on Mesut Ozil…
I haven’t decided yet, he still felt not too well after the game. I will see in training how he feels and I haven’t decided on the team that will start the game on Saturday.
on rotating his squad…
I have always decided to play the team that has a good chance to qualify, and I will continue to do that of course.
on whether there is a sickness bug…
It is possible, yes. We have a little problem on that front. I don’t know if it is a bug or not. they called me on the morning of the game and said Iwobi cannot play and Welbeck at 5pm in the afternoon felt sick. We still tried to play him but it could be a bug, I don’t know.
on how to stop it spreading…
That is for the doctors to do their job, I have enough to do!
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20170309/team-news-ozil-welbeck-and-iwobi#1WloHbfmPPYyC6M7.99
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Doug Nichols @TheTXI 7h7 hours ago
Don’t know why people keep acting like if AW announced tomorrow he’s out at end of season the players would suddenly band together & fight. If AW announced he was going, I don’t see why they would have any extra incentive to suddenly “win one for the gipper”
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The key reasons for our European exit
Having had a few days to analyse our Champions League exit, Arsène Wenger has been able to make a considered assessment of our second-leg performance.
While the final scoreline was ultimately disappointing, the Arsenal manager feels that his side’s first-half performance merits some credit.
Get the latest team news ahead of Saturday’s game
“It is easy for me to assess the game now because we watched it again, analysed it and have all the information available,” the Arsenal manager said. “Overall, as long as we were 11 against 11, we produced a top-level performance but after that it became impossible for us to have a chance to qualify.
Bayern Munich (h) – Bitesize
image: http://player.arsenal.com/videos/images/dotcom_article/970c362bdf34bb648ffe4917bb7bc3d2?thumbIndex=1
Video poster
“I think at the start of the game everybody said we had a one per cent chance [of turning it around], during the game we pushed it up to 30 per cent and after Koscielny was sent off it came down to zero, which is understandable.
“The questions it raises are [why] we failed in the second half of the first leg. In the second game, we had good moments and were a bit unlucky with the decisions of the referee. That will not be a decider.
“We have seen [during the Barcelona v PSG game] that at that level it can be very quick. A game can go one way or the other. That fightback showed the importance of two main factors in these games: the referee and very big players. That sums it up.
“I looked a little bit at Champions League history,” he added. “I think in the last seven years we’ve played five times against Barcelona or Bayern Munich, who are the two best teams in Europe. You have to take that into consideration as well.
“In the last nine years, we were only one time the worst team performing in the Champions League from England. When you’re present at that level, you can be punished as well. Basically there are many teams who are not there – they cannot be punished.”
Copyright 2017 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/20170309/the-key-reasons-for-our-european-exit#JIxVVgHMTJQu68XS.99
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“One major reason some refuse to see anything wrong with the refereeing in the English Premiership is because of the sincerely held belief that nothing in England is corrupt, that our sense of fair play is too deeply ingrained in our culture to permit anything so tawdry, so ‘beneath’ us.”
I think there is no difficulty in agreeing that there is something “wrong” with refereeing in England, and as we saw vividly on Tuesday and last night in Europe. However where we diverge on whether this is evidence that the referee is “corrupt” rather than sincere error, being deceived, being denied the use of technology to reduce errors.
It does seem to me that that if there was genuine corruption that, with our gallant professional media leading the world in phone hacking, e mail thieving, whistleblower funding, fake sheikh ensnaring that we might have some actual evidence of it – a referee with his hand in the £ cookie jar, a shadowy meeting caught on film from under the table, a brown paper bag of cash, or lets face it these days a digital trail to an account in Grand Cayman.
The best I have seen on here – and fair play to Shotta who went to efforts to assemble the data – seems to be that we don’t get as many penalties as other clubs, in some seasons. There may be a feeling that referees are corrupt, it may be a sincere feeling. It is not one I share not out of any sense of post- imperial superiority, but because I cannot see credible proof to substantiate the feeling.
As I have always said if there is credible evidence of corruption then please get it out and show me.
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Liam Brady is not guessing.
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i wish to defer from many here on the ucl game last night. although no one expected barca to turn the game around as many never expected us. but i did. why? because it is football. to attribute the heroic and guttful performance of barca players who camped in the psg half all game to referee is unfair. yes psg had their time in the first leg and like milan did against liverpool, they thought the tie was won. they were wrong. remember we almost did same against milan.
that barca were awarded two penalty kick shouldnt take the credit away from neymar who was composed at such a crucial time. scoring a free kick, a pen and an assist. it cant be down to the referee alone.
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I never needed to see evidence of match fixing in the IPL when it was set up, looking at the ownership model & structure.
However i should’ve gone down to the bookies and put some wonga on the match fixing scandals that came along later. Easy money.
Fortunately in football the only evidence for such skullduggery only happens in Australia or with some lower league team (not including bets involving pie eating goalkeepers – apparently it was only a pastie so doesn’t count haha! and also not including prominent plundits who get fined for betting whilst playing…)
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I didn’t watch the Qatar derby. Meh.
But I am planning on going to the u23 game on Monday!
*IBSF*
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it is high time penalty decision should not be called on referee discretion. handball outside the box is called but when inside the box, if the referee gives it, its harsh. shirt pull ouside the box is a foul but inside is ‘ive seen it not given’. a tripping or push outside is called but inside the referee has to use his discretion. if this kind of decisions are not coded in black and white, i.e a foul is a foul whether soft or not, whether inside or outside the box, delibrate or not, clubs like arsenal will always be at the mercy of dubious referees while clubs like barca and bayern continue to recieve favour. very soon video ref will set in but when the final decision still depends on referees’ view without clear cut rule, it will be one step forward, two steps backward.
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Whatever happened to the great Sutton Pie Eating scandal ? I had forgotten all about that !!
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What’s the Liam Brady news, George? That’s a fellow I trust completely.
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eduardo
Guardian sport may say that and that’s good, but another article I read in the Guardian, by Barney Ronay, says Wenger’s time is clearly up, and basically dismisses any part being played by the referee in the final scoreline, let alone result.
“At times like these the questioning pack can choose to go for the throat. Instead there was a feeling of awkwardness in the room, a note of tender disbelief at the extent of Wenger’s misguided conviction. Nothing kills like sympathy. Take my arm, old toad, lead me down cemetery road.”
It’s just a more high brow way of calling Wenger a deluded old fool.
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Eh? Why would the club release a statement on Wenger’s future, when they’ve got nothing to say? Weird.
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