Good morning Positives,
So … another international break, another fortnight to ponder the knowns v unknowns of our chosen sport, the carefully laid plans, the freaks of opportunity and of fortune, the strengths and weaknesses of character, and a reluctant acceptance of Fate. After Super Sunday, Meditative Monday.
Of yesterday’s match I felt that we were beaten by a better side on the day. The movement of Citeh’s front four, especially Sane, with their strings pulled by Silva pulled us apart on several occasions and the half time score probably was a little generous to us. We have very good players, the equivalent quality to De Bruyne, Aguero and Sterling, and later Jesus, but yesterday they created more chances, and better chances. Fortunately their finishing was fairly shite.
I make no criticism of our defenders or keeper. I think Francis Coquelin put in a good shift in a role that he had no experience and probably no idea he would be playing in until the aircraft took off. Kosc and Nacho played well and Sead was, in my opinion, probably our best player. His battle with Walker was a great contest.
I do not think that Sanchez playing up front on his own worked. Had Danny been fit it may have been the card to play but the Chilean did not settle to the task, and our shape was ragged.
I think after 56 minutes with the introduction of Lacazette we looked a far more effective operation and for the first time forced Citeh on to the back foot. Suddenly Alexis looked confident and effective, Mesut and Rambo gained half a yard. Suddenly, and by no means against the run of play, we were RIGHT BACK IN IT.
I really fancied that in the final 10-15 minutes of the game that the home side, having had a hard game at Naples in the week, would be there for for the taking as fatigue set in. Fool that I am.
Alas however whatever ‘could’ have been achieved with our team properly balanced we shall never know as a third home goal intervened. After the third went in we did not get the upper hand again in the final 20 minutes. I sympathise with the anger and frustration of the players. A clear error by the linesman that could have been resolved in seconds by the VAR. But we are where we are. We won’t be where we are in two years time, but no doubt there will be other obstacles that crop up in due course. I shall rant at the moon ( again).
The Totties up next- exactly the opponent required. Let’s make sure the officials know which way to twist the knife.
Not a cloud in the sky this morning nor a breath of wind moving the trees. See above. Enjoy your week.
Positively Arsenal 
Fair play to City, they truly are a very good side and probably “deserved” to be out of sight in the first half. But they weren’t. We were robbed of a chance to use the momentum of the goal to try and get something out of this game:
There is zero correlation between how well a team performs and how deserving they are of being given the right decisions – @_LS87_
Anyway, just a few positive things I’d like to go into:
1) Iwobi is a very good player and looked just about the only Arsenal player comfortable on the ball in the 1H for me. He is extremely good at using his body, can turn in tight spaces, can carry the ball and is very technically secure. It was obvious that this is why he was included.
2) Our press impressed me a lot at times, and I am surprised to see the majority disagree. It is as if people refuse to accept that this is one of best (if not the best) passing sides in Europe at the moment, flying with confidence. This is not single-player, not everything is up to us.
Yes there were times when it didn’t look completely orchestrated. But we are generally not a team that presses that high, so to see us force Man City into as many mistakes and long kicks as we have was impressive to me.
3) Special mention to Coquelin, who coped well with a completely unfamiliar position in the toughest of environments.
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Even if we take away City’s two dodgy goals leaving a 1-1 scoreline, we’d be fooling ourselves to believe that we deserved a point. Sure at 2-1 we looked as though we could get back into it but the offside goal really killed us off. Maybe had Laca been there from the start it might have been different.
It was hard enough without young Master Oliver’s contribution, but we performed well overall and had nothing to be ashamed of…Sead, Rambo and Le Coq really didn’t deserve to be on the losing side.
Pity that the spuds are kept away for a fortnight, this week would have been a good time to get our own back. Keep the faith.
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The general comments from Citeh fans is that is was by some distance their most difficult game of the season. We certainly did press them across the middle of the park. It does not do us much good as we get no points for putting up a good fight, but hey ho.
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If I can take those decisions out of it, they were definitely the better team and would normally have scored at least another with their chances first half.
Part of that may come from their incredibly high confidence at the moment. It must be off the charts with the season so far, and that absence of doubt, top form individually and as a team, is no doubt extremely beneficial, to a set of high quality, settled (I’m guessing they’ve had fewer changes than us so far) players who pose all kinds of challenges.
And yet, the hints were there from the offset that there were serious opportunities to get at them if only we could get three or four forward around their box. It is surely guaranteed that will be the case given the offensiveness of their lineup- with only one player besides the defence with good defensive chops, and he a good footballer himself.
It’s a high risk plan on the face of it from them, if an opponent is willing and able to go after them. However, the risks are huge to the opposition if they do go after them. Sit and we will almost certainly break you down, or go for it, attack these spaces, and leave your own spaces, and lets see who wins.
Quite clever ,then, or rather what any team with a mega budget really ought to be doing things, inviting a lovely contrast to that cowardly negative shit Mourinho.
So, in many ways we are similar. I do not see that big a difference between the two teams individual capabilities in either attack or defence. They are, however, completely in the groove, confidence and form individually and as a team as high as can be, with the safety net of knowing they can lose a game or two and still be firmly on track for the title, and not have the fans and media jump on them voraciously if they lose a game. Psychologically that put us in a tougher place than them.
I saw real signs they were tiring significantly before our goal, as well as hints of doubt in their players around that period but, ah, as we know, we were denied the chance to see what would legitimately happen next.
If we could play it again maybe going more front foot would be better, but i absolutely wasn’t asking for that at the start, and probably won’t be next time we face them there. Though the calculations would be different if we went there with a higher points tally, the one we have been denied by bad calls; and if we went there riding high at the top as they were, they absolutely would be.
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Rich given the pattern in many of these encounters between young pep and AW, specifically in the Home games where Pep only has the one victory with Munchen, AW has targeted the opponent in the last quarter of the match as Pep’s players inevitably tire and leave larger spaces to operate in, inviting the extra speed onto the pitch from a substitution or two. We’ve seen some examples in the past, exacerbated by Pep’s penchant for the backfiring late sub in these previous contests.
In my humble and insignificant opinion sending on Laca second half was always the gameplan assuming AFC could keep it close. And they were, and City were feeling some pressure at that time (Sterling’s poor technical quality on the final pass when not tired in the first half does not mean that City should’ve won regardless! You don’t win football matches on chances created…)
As we wrote before the kick off (I don’t have a crystal football) it’s a shame we can’t just focus on the football after a contest between two top teams and coaches like the fans in the rugby cricket hockey fly fishing can, nope, it’s a match where the official predictably wrote the story of the match and no matter your interpretation of that, that it happens is a tragedy and more importantly an embarrassment (especially in front of practitioners and followers of other sports) for the game that we all love.
BT can hire as many chumps to front up as they like but you and I all know the sport is currently a laughing stock (please refer to FIFA) and the recepiant of as many ridicule as the cycling (still love the cycling too!) ever was.
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Hello Andy
I’m still fuming at the numbers of stupidoids on Internet who think they would have done a tactics better then Wenger yesterday. Yes we were up against the best team in the league, and Alexis was in my opinion a liability on the pitch, however Arsene knew City had a major UCL game away at Napoli on the Wednesday and were likely to tire out after 60-70 minutes of their usual fast paced attacking game, hence he may have been saving Lacasette for the later time of the match.
As for PLGOL match officials, you know my view.
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Look at Totts vs Palace, the tinys pulled the Palace players all over the place in the box, and not a whistle blown, and not a peep said about it on BBB MOTD.
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Maybe the football break comes at a good time after all. For me. The British football world has come together again and, to a man almost, decided it was a fair pen, Wenger is in the wrong for saying otherwise, and again showing his poor character in face of deserved defeat etc.
Dermot Gallager, ex ref- still Pgmol, secret studio analyst on behalf of pgmol, who provides real time assistance to Sky and BBC about big decisions during games, and appears on Sky Sports to review weekend’s big decisions, and has column in Sun, etc, etc- has decided it was a pen, and Wenger should be grateful it wasn’t a red.
As with Watford player, but unanimous this time, the call is that contact from a defender means legitimate pen (though presumably contact from attacker on defender does not automatically mean free kick)
So, apparently , that is the game they want. Ruthless ‘winner’ coaches and players should hone their skills and work on these situations; forget the tough task of trying to do something with the ball in those situations, other than maybe getting a touch, concentrate on some contact with defender, fall over as convincingly as possible, a pen is yours.
At least there is clarity, and presumably Shearer, Gallagher and co will have the decency not to refer to expired notions of English or otherwise honesty. That game is gone. At least we can all have honesty and clarity about these new rules.
Man City, with all their unearned wealth, can today revel in their victory and send out their funny tweet referencing Shearer. They- manager, fans, players, twitter dweebs- definitely will have the honesty and grace to accept, nay, completely approve, next time (not this year if pgmol have decided it is their year) they concede a pen of the same nature.
And so the only question is of when we wake up from our naive dreams of fair play and start playing the game as it is. Because we will definitely get pens when we do the same, and Shearer, Gallagher and co will definitely defend us.
Honestly, I need the break. I’ve come back from feeling more despondent than this about the game many a time, but it always feels improbable, in the moment, that I will. It sure does today. We are completely surrounded by…it’s them deplorables.
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In football just because your the better team doesn’t always mean you deserve to win.
City were wasteful in their finishing and poor on the counter. When that happens you often get punished.
Had we not conceded the pen the chance was still there for us to come back and score which we eventually did. You cannot say just because city are a quality side and created lots of opportunities then the officials decisions don’t matter.
How many times have we seen manure and the tiny totts gets results they didn’t deserve and in fact it’s supposed to be the sign of a good side getting results when playing badly or when your not the better team, well we were on that yesterday but Oliver and his mates once again had other ideas
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Again we have been cheated by the Pg mob but the nay sayers will differ as usual.
Wonder when justice will be done for Arsenal,Wenger and us fans sigh…..
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As long as the managers and teams who benefit from horrible officiating remain silent, as long as the rival fans insist on laughing and rubbing it in when it happens to others – absolutely nothing will change.
It is so easy to brush off the person that ends up with the shit end of the stick as a sore, graceless loser.
It really beggars belief that 99% of the people I’ve interacted with after the game (Arsenal fans included) thought that “yeah, but City were the better team” somehow even begins to address the issue!
Roll on the scum!
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Fully agree with Ian. Goals win games, not who we think played better. The refs ought not swing the match with bad decisions. The irony… people laugh at Arsenal when we lose to 1 shot on goal. I usually don’t read about how superior we were. People usually say we were wasteful, had not cutting edge and all that.
I was not happy with the line up but apart from a terrible pass from Kolasinac the scoreline would most probably have been 0-0, despite being outplayed. If the ref does his job properly, who knows.
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0-0 at halftime.
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For any who have not picked it up an enjoyable article on George Graham in the Guarniad today. Some of the 89 stuff that will bring a tear to Mel’s eye but some insightful comments from the man on the modern game and the modern Arsenal.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/nov/06/george-graham-mourinho-arsenal-anfield-1989-interview
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Well said fins.
The big positive for me is that the blurred lines have given way again to clearer separation. I’d gotten too comfortable accommodating all the digital mediocrity within my domain.
Thanks for the recalibration Mike Oliver.
The state of objective analysis today explains why the parasitic clowns at the top get away with so much. Oddly enough I am a lot less affected by yesterday than other instances in the past…involving Pep.
AW’s tactics, considering the Per & Holding situation, was actually spot- on. We had them right where Arsene wanted but for the whistle of the Twist. Lil’ O, the weasel.
Let me get off here positivistas.
We march on.
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Good Post, Anicoll,
Every pearl, they tell me, starts with a little grit and in among all the out and out positive minded people I stand out as a wrong ‘un.
You see, I was gutted by the result as I had a secret albeit supressed belief that we would go against the grain and sneak at least a draw from the game, and if there had not been two dubious decisions against us resulting in goals for City, that might have come to be.
I am not in the camp of those who see collusion and corruption in every adverse refereeing decision against us. Referees make mistakes, either because of simple human error, or the the obvious reason – some people are not as good at their jobs as other people.
Let me explain. The 3rd goal was a total nonsense – even Mr Magoo could have seen that De Silva was a yard offside, and passed to an offside Jesus (what a name) to tap in.
There can be no arguing with any of that.
The 2nd goal was arguable to many fair minded people but I came down on the side of having serious doubt about it, not simply based on biased fan wishes.
Then I read Mark Clattenburg’s view as a referee, in which he toed the party line in saying it was definitely a penalty, but his justification was interesting and rather doubtful.
He said that Sterling was ‘clever’ because he deliberately ‘slowed down’ knowing that Nacho would be unable to run into him, and earn him a penalty.
That is not ‘clever’ it is cheating. Why is cheating conflated with ‘cleverness’ — if you had given me back my dictionary I am sure there would be no cross-contamination between the two words.
What I saw was not a penalty, it was cheating — what the referee apparently saw was clever – which apparently is the same as cheating from my perspective – the problem here being tthat he ref can award a penalty whereas we fans can only get angry and yell.
An additional problem is the displacement of that anger — hence I have been, unusually for me, very grumpy and I have convinced myself the players let us down.
The truth is – that is probably rubbish, but convincing for the ‘wronged’ fan — and it is a rather embarrassing and probably stupid feeling that I am somewhat ashamed to have had.
Mea culpa.
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HenryB
Yeah, Clattenberg’s view is deeply dispiriting, especially considering he was top of the pile in European refereeing very recently- did Euros final and at least one CL final.
We can only wonder how many other refs, the genuinely capable like him, or the not so talented, share that view about cleverness for earning pens and who knows what else.
We can, or at least I do, also wonder if he is being honest. I have grave doubts. I saw him give a masterclass away at Atletico’s stadium in a crucial game to that run of success of his, and he resisted incredible pressure from players and the fans to turn down endless attempts to win free kicks and, especially, pens. A fair few of them no doubt involved players running into their opponents and calling upon every ounce of cleverness,etc.
He did what was needed on the day for his career, and it just happened to be using his excellent qualities as a ref in a normal fashion.
Anyway, for a guy who has twice now this year set out a stance of having a very low threshold for giving a penalty- contact, on the attacker, basically, even if instigated by the attackers deliberate actions- I know of twice in games involving us, Sanchez and Everton only when he clearly operated in a different manner :
In our 2-0 win two years ago he bizarrely ignored a couple of clear consecutive fouls on Sanchez; then last year in the dying seconds, when Sanchez, cleverly I’ll admit, came from the blindside of an opponent who kicked him instead of the ball.
Old Clattenberg felt differently then, and i am convinced that if discussing those two actions if committed by us defending and awarded as pens, he’d say, ‘spot on. Clear pens’.
I don’t think collusion and corruption are particularly necessary. More likely to me is that… things stink at the top (though the why and how of that admittedly take some explanation) and if you want to get on you must be willing to cover yourself in that stink.
I think of a fine honest young referee beginning their journey through the ranks much as I would a decent young trainee journalist arriving at the Daily Mail. Maybe they can earn a number of promotions without changing and compromising themselves, but not too many, and certainly not to the top.
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Clattenburg’s comments go much further in showing what is meant by the PGMOL’s term “Game Management”, than in any explaining of actual rules. If only they had the honesty to call Game Management what it really is – Game altering – then people would know what they are really all about.
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my views on the game, having only watched it today, knowing the results, knowing many peoples views on it, the big talking points etc
Very poor performance from Arsenal in so many ways, our passing was awful, Alexis alone lost the ball 15 times in the first half, each of City’s 3 goals came from attacks where Arsenal players lost possession through mistakes, Iwobi on the first goal, wasn’t it Alexis who got turned over for the second leading to the penalty, and Kolasinac for the third offside goal.
In fact I would go as far as to say most of city’s best/most dangerous attacks came from Arsenal turning over the ball, right from City’s first good chance when Alexis passed the ball right to a city player on edge of their area, after firstly putting in a poor corner kick, and city countered at speed, another great chance for city came when Ramsey fell over 30 yards from their goal, and again they broke at speed. It was the constant of the game.
Our defending was not great either on each goal, even allowing for the wrong decisions on two of them from the officials.
Goal 1, Koscielny had the chance to close KDB down, but chose not to
Goal 2, Monreal took the wrong decision to try and play for an offside, meaning he had to rush back, then he compounded it by putting in the sort of challenge that allowed the diver to give the Ref the chance to affect the game.
Goal 3, clear offside, but you play to the whistle, Monreal in fact, after stopping and appealing for offside, actually turned to appeal to the linesman a second time, before realizing he had to try and make a tackle on the attacker. Kos stopped completely, and Bellerin paused too, either of which could have stopped the goal.
Now to counter the pointing out of these player errors, 2 of the goals came from far bigger errors from the officials, I will take them in order of greatest error first.
Goal 3 – offside, offside, not by the toenail that officials can see when its Lacazette, not even by a foot or two, but in fact it was two separate players a yard or more offside, right in line with a perfectly positioned linesman,
Goal 2. I can fully understand how the ref could award it, split second, one viewing, etc etc and as AW pointed out, Sterling is a good diver. What I don’t get is anyone who thinks, after several viewings, that it was not a dive. It was the Jamie Vardy dive, down to a tee, Monreal was shoulder to shoulder, he had a hand up high across Sterling, just as Sterling had his hand across Monreal. any actual push or barge would mean Sterling should have fallen sideways, not forwards as he did. Also the big giveaway, as it is any time Vardy dives. is the unnatural leg movement, when tripped or when a tangle of legs happen in contact, ones legs do not split sideways, it is or at the least an attempt to manufacture contact, and/or con the Ref. I played Soccer and GAA for 20 years as an adult, and I never seen anyone naturally fall that way under contact, in fact its like something you see on one of those big mud slides where or water slides where you spread out starfish like, you just do not naturally go into the position from a trip or a shove. A dive, clear as day.
One last thing on the penalty, if Arsenal were awarded penalties as soft as this, we would be getting at least 20 or 30 penalties a season
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I admire my friend AndyNic’s desire to be objective and even handed in his match reporting. But there is an 800lb guerilla in the room he tried to ignore but it won’t go away. The officiating was scandalous to paraphrase our manager Mr Wenger. On Twitter of all places, even the usually shy, timid posters, deathly afraid of being branded a conspiracy theorist, have been posting data and statistics showing Mr Oliver and his team deserve every criticism levelled by our usually circumspect manager.
Apparently no one seems to understand the politics motivating the abhorrent behavior of Mr Riley and his gang. I have my theory.
The City of London is a favorite destination for Qatari money, whose money bankroll ManCity. There is intense competition with Wall St. for Middle East money from the emirs and princes. For example, Trump recently told the Saudis, how important it is for the US for the IPO of the Saudi oil company, ARAMCO, to take place in New York, not London. In my opinion the Powers That Be (TPTB) will not allow one of Qatar’s major international pr vehicles, the one they splashed nearly half a billion pounds in new players this past 2 years, to run aground against a club which refuses to play the money game. For AW to so openly criticize the officials, and Riley’s little pet, Mr Oliver, tells you how deeply hurt he was by the officiating.
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one other thought on the game yesterday, it seemed that Ramsey and Alexis were refusing to pass to each other
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Interesting the dominant theme is the 800 lb gorilla yet again Shotta
Well when I say yet again I mean after the Stole, Watford and yesterday’s game
The 800 lb gorilla was peculiarly absent following Pulis’ complaints about his penalty at the Emirates, the dubious decision making by the dodgy Lino at the Cup semi final and for goodness sake don’t mention referees or Arsenal to Sean Dyche.
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Good for you though eddy – we lost – dreadful performance by our players and the officials et cetera
Not a mention of the opponent playing well – not one single letter of recognition
Job done
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Presumably as Citeh were such utter shite who could only get anywhere near our goal as a result of the calamitous defending it was a remarkably poor performance from us (puzzled expression)
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Qatar funding Citeh ? Are you sure Shotta …
Abu Dhabi and the UAE fund Citeh
And Qatar and the UAE are at loggerheads and currently have no diplomatic relations as the latter in the KSA crew
PSG and Barcelona yes – unless Qatar are secretly funding the Mansour family no.
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How can it possibly matter who “deserved” to win? We can all remember matches we deserved to win but didn’t.
The winner is the team that scores the most goals.
So, credit where it’s due. Sunday’s result:
City 1 Arsenal 1 Officials 2
clearly makes the Officials the winners.
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Andy is trying to unify the belts by taking on all comers.
And he is right btw. City were top notch and I thought we did well to have had a chance before the officials made the mistakes. Because they were good, it doesn’t follow that we were bad.
Buck up.
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anicol I was giving my thoughts on Arsenal’s performance, not citys. I care little to express my views on city’s performance here on an Arsenal blog, as I’m sure most here will not be wanting to see what was a long post become a very long post with half of it devoted to man city’s performance and what I seen from them yesterday. My given views concern Arsenal as that is what most interests me and concerns me as I’m an Arsenal supporter
Did Arsenal not lose possession easily in build up to all 3 city goals, do I really need to add city were good enough to take advantage of it, after all its clear they were as they scored. I don’t spend time dissecting our opponents mistakes on the goals we score, as its not my main concern, so why should I spend time on the good stuff from city, again its not my main concern, I would bet that in any after game analysis the Arsenal squad/coaches have done today on the game, they will not have been too concerned about what city done well, only on what Arsenal did well or not so well, as Wenger would put it, “we can only take care of our own performance”. And that is how I approach my run down of a game.
In case you missed it I stated I understand why the Ref awarded the penalty, my big gripe on the penalty is how on multiple viewings so many do not see the Vardy style leg split from Sterling seeking contact, its cheating/diving.
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Sanchez doesn’t pass to anyone btw.
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George, just cos city were good does not mean we were not poor.
Our passing was poor, yes city were very good and very quick to pounce on so much of our poor passing or mistakes, that does not mean the passing were any less poor, or the mistakes were not mistakes.
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George you are wrong about Alexis, he passes a fair bit to our opponents. (banned smiley)
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Kane and Winks out of England squad, but expected to be fit to face Arsenal
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https://www.arsenal.com/news/analysis-where-we-lost-game-man-city
Alexis (21), and Ozil (17) lost possession more than any other Arsenal players v Man City.
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Nacho Monreal has been voted the PFA Bristol Street Motors Player of the Month for October by football fans across the country.
He has never won this sort of accolade before, but he has won it after not being allowed to play in his correct position apparently.
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Kane, winks and Alli out then. Really does style himself on Ferguson.
Spot of bad luck the break has come now, and most of the CL clubs have nearly qualified, as strain was starting to show of playing in both comps, especially for Spurs.
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On Alexis’ passing, not sure he found him many times but it seemed evident again in match he looks for Ozil a lot, often when there’s a better pass to someone else on.
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Andynic
I could be wrong here but there’be been plenty of comments on bizarre officials following AFC victories. I’m guilty. You can count me as one of these critics. Who fortunately was full of praise for the opponents before during and now after the sporting contest that was ruined by the match fixing.
–
The Qataris are of the same tribal group raised from the desert by our corps one hundred years ago alongside the Saud and Emirates.
Qatar was granted independence from the UK later, at the start of the nineteen seventies.
The spat between them and the Saud is no different to the purges underway within that staunch ally of many of our MPs at this current moment.
I believe the accurate term used to describe the above construct is Neo-Raj/American Raj (in West not South Asia).
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< in the interest of balance I didn't make the comment here (as I've tried to request from others too) but elsewhere:
The foul count after the Swansea match (home victory) was a disgrace for this league.
Shambolic. Some would say.
You can dress up a turd with bells and whistles, but it's still going to stink.
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Rich the pass from Alexis to Ozil when he had Bellerin and Ramsey on the other side begging for the pass (& a clear shot on goal) when 0-1 (I think) was mildly infuriating *curses*
Almost as predictable as Oliver awarding a pen when an AFC opponent flops in the box.
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Andy Nic: You are right. Abu Dhabi, not Qatar, bankrolls Man City. Same difference when it comes to the PR project and the importance of this Middle Eastern oil state to the City of London and TPTB. To understand the league and the PGMO follow the money.
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@eduardo792,
Wholeheartedly agree with almost everything you said, but for a few minor details.
For the second goal, I think It was Kolasinac mistake. First of all, as has been pointed out again and again, you don’t try and play offside when there is no pressure on the ball. Fernandihno (or was it someone else?) had all the time in the world to turn, make eye-contact with Sterling, and pick him out in behind the defence. Kolasinac, in my opinion, should have followed him, not tried to play him offside last second, not least because he was the one messing up the line, not Nachoman.
For the first goal, you’re not the first to blame Iwobi. He lost the ball about 60 seconds before the goal came to pass –> by principles of proximate cause and foreseeability, I don’t think it reasonable to blame Iwobi. That would mean, by extension, that every single goal scored is because of an error, since you ultimately must surrender the ball at some point prior to your opponent’ scoring.
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Andy, it seems strange you try to defend officials by pointing out their mistakes in other games.
Offsides have always been difficult to call and some are so tight we shouldn’t expect that officials won’t make mistakes. However when an offside player is the player nearest the official and the defending team are clearly playing an offside trap it is difficult to see how he got it wrong. If you add to this another player being offside at the same time and the contrast in team colours it starts to make you wonder.
If we are indeed saying that these particular decisions are to difficult for humans to make then VAR has to be introduced.
The insult to injury is the media’s and representatives from officialdom’s past and present attitude to errors as if it makes no difference to results when in actual fact even small errors can have a big influence on how games are played.
The big errors have overshadowed the other failings by the officials during the game. If you look at when the advantage was played and when it was called back it was again dubious.
Bookings will also have an effect on a game and when the same fouls are not treated the same the balance can sway.
Hector was told at one point he wasn’t taking the throw from the right place when he was deep in our own half and under pressure, of course this would be the correct decision if you didn’t put it in context of the other hundred throws where players were gaining yards including one that wasn’t even taken in the same half as the ball going out.
So some decisions will be difficult and officials need technological help in aiding them but alot of decisions are basic and if you can stand next to a player and let him run ten yards up the line you shouldn’t be officiating.
To be honest the use of shaving foam is an embarrassment to officialdom and an admission they couldn’t even get that right
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Folks, think if you are going to make accusations against Middle Eastern owners you should be more careful in your wording and only include things you are on very solid ground with. Not a good look otherwise.
What we know is that Qatar did buy a world cup from the disgrace that is Fifa; and City and PSG have both had little regard for financial fair play, surely indulged in some creative accounting and blatant self-sponsorship, and generally look to stretch all rules which impede their spending and other activities- recruiting young players, links to/owning other clubs- to breaking point.
At the risk of not being careful enough in my wording, i’d say it’s all consistent with how extremely rich people who are completely used to getting their own way, and in their own kingdoms deal ruthlessly with opposition and dissent, are likely to behave.
Anything else, especially in terms of, well, influencing officials here, I don’t believe we have anything to go on.
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@anicoll5
About the absent gorilla:
1) WBA (h) this season – nailed on penalty for WBA
2) Burnley last season – both the goal (a) and the penalty (h) were legitimate imo.
3) Cup semi last season – goal should have stood for City. This one was incredibly difficult as the ball was swerving into touch before coming back in. The lino was positioned poorly if memory serves, and he could have only guessed.
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The Chosen One, the chosen Messiah for Groaners when at their peak before they decended into further years of failure, the man who gave a semi-retired footballer a 300K p/w contract for some unfathomable reason, he has now been hired by the gentlemen referred to by the President of Benfica as the “Dildo Brothers” after some bungled transfer negotitaions. The very same gentlemen who are the kind of wannabe sugar daddy owners many would like to see at AFC, who tweeted that they were going to sign Seville legend Bacca before signing Zaza the player who took the worst pelanty in the history of the sport in the last Euros, people were dying with laughter in the streets but I digress.
David Moyes is back in the saddle! Yippie ki yay!
And some young up and coming coach doesn’t get the chance. You won’t see Keys Grey and Allardici crying about the appointment of Moyes, or his bizarre decision to reward a player that Ferguson would no longer trust becasue he didn’t train properly with what was then probably biggest contract in the history of english football.
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Gets better:
According to Der Telegraph:
“The Hammers are in discussions about bringing in former left-back Stuart Pearce as Moyes’ assistant.”
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Lots of grief from armchair experts in the media and ex players alike for not starting a striker in that game, namely Lacazette
Not one of these higher authorities on tactics has even thought to consider that maybe, just maybe, wenger wanted to weather their high press storm by defending, hope to stay in the game, then bring on goalscorers , and change to attack as their energy levels reduced, from the way they started the game, and the way they played midweek. If this was on wengers mind, would seem very sensible to me, and may well have worked if the officials had done their job by the spirit and laws of the game, as opposed to the desires of Riley, the media and who knows who else.
Wenger has spoken out, we know the refereeing we will get against the Spuds, probably will have got it anyway. I hope our players are prepared for the dive twins, and others who play under a manager who clearly encourages his team to cheat. and everyone loves him for it.
If you cant beat them, join them some say, and they may well be right, as the PGMOL and other powers that be for whatever reason seem to reward cheating. Individual players may, but not sure wenger would ever resort to such cheating, prob wouldnt get away with as much as others either, perhaps to his cost, but i strongly suspect the next man, under pressure to perform after a legacy manager, will adopt a very different approach on the darker arts to the current.
On another note, that GG article was a great read. He seems pretty scathing of the board and current setup, though not criticizing wenger himself. Perhaps harsh, Wenger is unique, the last of a breed of managers who run virtually everything. Surelyt the new man will have a much bigger supporting cast, be asked to concentrate almost solely on the first team squad, be more accountable to the board and a slave to KPIs, at least in relative terms. In short, they will have nowhere near the power our current, wonderful and unique manager has.
Maybe GG and others should judge the board in a more objective way after wenger departs.
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See Dixon is sticking the knife in now
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“Andy, it seems strange you try to defend officials by pointing out their mistakes in other games.”
I am not defending officials on this occasion but questioning the narrative that AFC are unique victims of referring incompetence and/or corruption. We get a few dodgy decisions against us, and we get a few in our favour. We get a few penalties awarded that are soft, we are punished likewise.
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Anicoll5,
That sounds like some version of “it evens itself out”, which is one of the biggest myths in the game that just won’t die.
Even when I try to correct for my obvious red-and-white-tinted-glasses-bias, I cannot escape the feeling that we have been severely and irreparably wronged in both boxes on far too many occasions already this season.
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