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 
Well, I think we are crapped on quite often. I have always felt it a bit strange. To my surprise, over the past few days, I have seen people who don’t like Arsenal agree that something is a bit amiss. Surely, it does not mean that Arsenal don’t get a few dodgy calls in favor (obviously the refs are not going to get it all right), but we have gone just a few games and we have gotten the crap end of the stick a lot. I have seen it in the past seasons. It really does not look like it evens up to me. I admit, I am biased, but I would bet that we don’t get a lot of big calls going our way in comparison.
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As far as City they passed the ball around very well, got forward very well, but their end product was not good. As pretty as it looks, that does not win matches, as we know all too well.
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Soft/incorrect pens against us since start of last year :
16/17
Tottenham (h) : Dembele charging with ball, picks out a static player, runs at him, touches ball to side last moment, runs into player
Bournemouth (a) bit stronger, but again a player- little Scottish git- looking for contact, slowing down and making a meal of it (with Xhaka) **
Palace (a) Townsend knocks ball past onrushing martinez and sticks other leg way out to create contact.
Bournemouth (h) Monreal apparently fouls Wilson. Can’t remember it but vaguely recall it as another very dodgy one, with attacker blatantly ignoring using ball in hunt for pen.
Spurs (A) More of the old pen hunting. Kane gets touch before Gabriel and is only concerned with creating pen instead of following ball. Leg flung out to side, theatrical fall.
That’s only five of last year’s ten I remember and literally none of them were real pens.
* Burnley (H) Coquelin on Barnes. Can’t remember but it was cue for Wenger being sent off
————-
17/18
Watford (a) No, no, no
City (a) Nope. Just more of the pen-hunting, from a player the authorities know goes in heavily for it.
——————————————
As for us, I’m struggling to remember many (6 last year and apparently 1 this, which I can’t recall!)
Burnley (h) Kos caught by high boot. Could easily not have got that, I think.
Sanchez got one that everyone thought was a nailed on pen but I thought was a (mild) example of the ones I hate against us : a leg available, make sure you go over it.
———————-
Anyway, my argument plenty weakened by not remembering 4 of the pens against us, nor 6 of those for us, but it still half backs up my belief that virtually every pen we concede is in the soft/ incorrect category.
That tension never leaves me without a 2 goal lead now. At any moment we can be had by one of these nonsense pens.
At least two related things going on, I believe : (1) everyone else is pen-hunting like crazy, while we hardly do at all; (2) refs very rarely turn down any opportunity to give a pen against us, but ignore or fail to see many strong claims we have.
** thought of that match again yesterday, and the massive shoulder barge on Bellerin in the corner which was deemed ok for their third. With top ex officials stating this City one was a pen because Monreal initiated upper body contact, you have to wonder anew how that was allowed. A much lower threshold in box doesn’t make much sense.
‘Be much stronger-again- Bellerin! ; don’t go near him, Monreal!
Nasty possibility it could have been the same fellow who didn’t flag for offside this weekend who was influential in both cases.
That son of Staffordshire did that Bournemouth game,too, and for both barges was most likely asked for input from ref or gave it himself. That’s how they are meant to operate and apparently do.
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The Lesson of Ali v.s. Foreman:
I never saw City vs Arsenal for reasons almost everyone on this blog is aware. But from everything I read City was the better team and so victory was inevitable. Apparently Mr Wenger’s complaint that poor refereeing tilted the odds in favor of City is discounted by even some of us of positive persuasion.
Reminds me of that legendary fight between Ali and Foreman, the “Rumble in the Jungle” 40 years ago. In those days boxing was crooked but not to the levels it is today. The corruption is so clear and systemic that hardly anybody I know cares about professional boxing. The football authorities in England and FIFA ignore the continued fixing and tilting of games to their own peril. Who would have thunk that the NFL’s audience could crater at the rate it is now going?
Back to the fight. At the time it had the largest live audience ever based on satellite broadcasts to close circuit locations worldwide. In those days there was no satellite TV systems as we know today. Those who offered the fight had to have huge expensive, clunky equipment on location. That was only possible if they were guaranteed a huge audience. I was among 30,000 in Jamaica’s National Stadium paying what was for me a princely sum to watch this epic fight.
George Foreman was the Manchester City of boxing. A model heavyweight, with fists of iron who had knocked out all his opponents within 4 rounds including the 1974 destruction of then champion Smokin Joe Frazier who he knocked down 6 times in 2 rounds. On form he was unbeatable. Ali was like Arsenal; the skillful, quick jabbing champion, who wore the opponent out until he was ready for the kill.
Initially the fight went to form. For at least the 1st four rounds Foreman had Ali on the ropes savaging him with heavy punches. But like Arsenal Ali was playing rope-a-dope absorbing the punishment but never allowing Foreman to land a fatal blow. Unlike today’s referees, there was no attempt by the officials to decide the fate of the fight. How often we see referees today waiving off fights because a boxer seem to be taking too much punishment. By round 4, Ali was beginning to counter attack. Big George had run out of energy and in subsequent rounds the hunter had become the hunted. The rest is history.
Like Muhammed Ali, give Arsenal a fair referee and we have a sporting chance of getting a result over 90 minutes. That is all we football fans ask for. If not, sooner or later we will turn our back on the sport, in droves.
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BREAKING: Arsene Wenger will not face FA action for accusing Raheem Sterling of diving to win a penalty – Sky sources
does this mean the FA agree with Wenger that Sterling is a good diver and that the officials are getting worse season on season
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Joseph Montemurro joins us from Melbourne City FC to take over as Manager of Arsenal Women.
Joe has an outstanding track record. In his first season with Melbourne City Women, he led them to an unbeaten championship winning campaign in 2015/16. The side repeated the achievement in 2016/17, winning back to back championships under his management.
Joe holds a UEFA Pro License qualification and a Masters Degree in Sports Coaching.
He said: “I feel honoured and humbled to join Arsenal. I’m excited by the challenge and I am really looking forward to working with the talented staff and players at this great club.”
Joe has worked with many world class players including Arsenal star Kim Little, who played for Joe in Australia. She said, “Joe is a great manager. I really enjoyed working with him previously and I think that he has the qualities that we need to help us achieve our goals, and ultimately win more trophies.”
This appointment is subject to the completion of regulatory processes.
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 https://www.arsenal.com/news/montemurro-joins-arsenal#o8SSUV4pXT5btekc.99
Read more at https://www.arsenal.com/news/montemurro-joins-arsenal#0dflM6lXO07DMeu3.99
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Zimbabwe trying to persuade Reiss Nelson to declare for them.
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Admittedly my view is coloured by the very warm and handsome gloves I have just received in my membership pack but I remain convinced that we have a decent team who would be even better if the refs in the EPL did their job properly.
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Good comment Shotta! all too often refs are deciding the matches and not the players. Its simply not right and is getting quite old. I remember the 2005 FA Cup. We played like rubbish but won the it on pens same way.
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Very interesting they haven’t charged Wenger, either they have some sympathy with his comments, or they are going to hit him where it really hurts, ie next league game.
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This is part of a comment I just read on Untold Arsenal.
Pens over the last 7 years to this season:
Man. City For: 55 Against:19
Arsenal For: 33 Against:39
They’ve been given 66.0% more than us and we’ve suffered 105.0% more against.
Not one of the other top four has a deficit as does The Arsenal. Their numbers are:
Chelsea 45 20
Liverpool 47 31
Man. Utd 39 24
Tottenham 37 26
?!?!
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One positive,Cech will ultimately get better at saving pens with all the practice he is going to get this season
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mandy maybe the fa did not charge wenger as they feared he could beat the charges by proving his comments were correct, how what would that have done to the BPL Brand and the PGMOL
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Perhaps, that hasn’t stopped them in the past, but maybe our lawyers are fighting back, as the did over the Eduardo ” dive”
I still fear the refereeing we will get against Spurs though
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Dean or Atkinson for the spurs game I would expect, maybe Moss at a push
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Probably right, Dean likes this fixture in days gone by.
Swarbrick has already done his damage, can’t have Olver twice in a row.
Doubt if Moss will be able to keep up with such a game, though he doesn’t have to be a fast runner to send off our Xhaka for very little.
Clattenberg rescued it for them with what the media described as a clever penalty in this fixture a year ago, Oliver gave them another “clever” penalty at WHL last April.
But Clattenberg has departed I think?
Is Mason still about?
Atkinson it is, until I am proved wrong
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PaulN,
Does that penalty breakdown include a per-season view? Or just cumulative for the past 7? I am dying to see City/Spurs tally for the past 3 seasons.
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Shotta @6:32 7th Nov
I appreciate my views are not rated along with the top bloggers,but if it helps, I thought I would copy and paste part of my comment yesterday as it might cheer you up.
——— “I was gutted by the result (City 3 : 0 Arsenal) 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 just 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 a biased fan’s 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 (running joke with Anicoll) 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 not the same as cheating – the problem here being that the ref can award a penalty, whereas we the fans can only get angry and yell.”
So, no, I did not think it was a foregone conclusion that we would lose — and Mr Wenger was correct – and he had every right to point out the poor decisions made, and the effect they could have on our season.
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santi-cazorler
Only ever seen one site which compiles pens, fairly amateur-looking but think it’s accurate.
If you’re including us in that 3 year period, first two of them were unusually good ones for us, with positive tallies at the end, something we hadn’t had for six years in a row beforehand
Arsenal 14-15: (7:3) ; 15-16 (2-1); 16-17 (6:10) Total : 15: 14 (+1)
Spurs 14-15: (5:7); 15-16 (5:2); 16-17 (9:2) Total: 19:11 (+8)
Man City 14-15 (8:4) ; 15-16 (8:1); 16-17 (9:4) Total 25: 9 (+16)
I don’t find those figures as startling as the longer term ones. Not unless I start thinking about the ones we have turned down versus the ones we concede.
The argument for why those figures over the period are normal enough would be : vagaries of luck/ sport (i.e the sort of thing which will even out) ; overall and specific qualities of each team over that period.
In other words, Spurs stats suggest a team who was a bit better than us in that period; City’s a team who were significantly better.
Notably, in both Leicester’s title success and Liverpool’s doomed title charge of two years earlier both teams had spectacularly good years for pens (Leics 15-16 (13:4) ; Liverpool 13-14 (12:4) ). Again, this could be evidence that they were playing exceptionally well at the time. Though it can also be looked at differently in terms of how many points were won as a result of pens. At the very least, pens were incredibly important in both teams momentum and success in each instance.
I tried an analysis once of using the long term pen stats against points gained and goals scored and conceded. There should be a strong correlation in that over a long period with penalties, as better teams should earn more of them and concede less, largely as a function of how much time you are spending in the opposition penalty area and vice versa, and also what quality you possess in there (possession stats might also be useful)
Alas…it was well beyond me (laughably, I just hoped something would click once I’d put together the stats- Nope!)
What was easier to see was that over the longer period- Riley’s reign was my chosen set- all our rivals did remarkably better than us, while our stats put us in a group with Sunderland, Stoke and Villa.
There only seemed two possible conclusions : (1) either our luck was extremely bad over a seven or eight year period, or (2) we were a tremendous curiosity as a team, unique probably in world football : a team with long-term penalty stats completely at odds with our points, goals for and against and league position tallies.
A team good enough to always finish in the top four, with an attack and a defence good enough to accomplish that, but also with an attack which was only good enough to win pens at the rate of a bottom half/ relegation battling team; and which also conceded pens at the rate of a struggling team.
Same old —-L, always cheating
http://www.myfootballfacts.com/Premier_League_Penalty_Statistics.html
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Rich,
Those stats just show that we have a big bunch of footballing thugs who threaten and bully other teams, and have done so for years, which explains the humongous number of penalties conceded. {Tries to swat away the sword of Damocles hanging overhead}
Of course it is a little difficult to reconcile that statement with the widely held view that we only have teams of pussy cats, without cojones, who are pushovers if the opposition say ‘boo’ because our team ‘do not like it up ’em’. {rolls eyes, and sighs}
For the sake of clarity — can I say that both those rationalisations are pure bollix – and I am mystified by the penalty count, and the fact that I had no idea we gave away approximately 5 1/2 penalties a season, which is roughly a penalty in 14.5% of the games or one every 7 games. {Actually, put that way, it does not sound so bad.}
With regard to the 33 penalties given to us, against 39 awarded against us, it just goes to show that the opposition are better cheats than us at hiding their (penalty) fouls, whereas we are far too honest and look like we are fouling, when we are, and the pens are then inevitable.
I guess that this tongue in cheek review reflects the fact that stats without context can lead to multifarious incorrect interpretations.
[Thank you – to whoever released me from a non stipulated sojourn in limbo – or better known as moderation] lol
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Henry
Indeed, people can interpret stats as they like. What I’d say is that ours are indisputably strange.
There might be a problem doing a like-for-like across all top leagues of clubs who have performed much as we have for ten years or so, as i doubt there are many who were always top four while never getting that close to winning on any individual season.
One way I guess is just adding up points totals for similar clubs over that long period, so we are probably a close match for liverpool, and not miles away from City, utd, Chelsea. Maybe those of,say, Roma, Seville, Lyon, Leverkusen would be decent comparisons, but I’m sure their fortunes have fluctuated more than ours.
I fully expect however it is relatively rare for a top four team not to finish with a plus over an individual season, so it seems fair to extrapolate from there and say it is highly irregular for a club who are, bar one year, always in the top four to be in a minus position over many seasons.
Other than looking for other stats to use in addition to the pen ones, I guess the only other context comes from…the incredibly unwieldy task of thinking over individual decisions in that time. There seems no way to do that neatly. No amount of recapping decisions etc seems capable of swaying an opinion either way.
For me, it certainly wasn’t stats which alerted me to the possibility we did terribly on referee decisions. Instead, a sense grew from the context of watching games did that for me; I wrestled with the likelihood of that for a long time, and still do to an extent; then, further on, I started looking to stats and other resources (including any football book I could lay my hands on, especially ref ones) to try challenge those beliefs of mine or, rather, if I’m being halfway honest, to support them.
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Anyway, captain too much time on his hands today here can confirm top four clubs typically finish with positive pen difference
In 10 years from 2007-8 until end of last year ,31 out of the 40 top four finishers had plus for pens
Of 9 who didn’t it was Spurs once, liverpool once, Utd once and us six times.
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I understand what you are saying, Rich, and frankly like so much in life, there events and incidents that make us all arrive at conclusions about them, and when we compare one person’s view with t’other they are often different.
There is little point in trying to establish which is ‘right’ because in their own way they are both correct.
For example, I have seen on TV games, unrelated to Arsenal, where the most dreadful refereeing cock up has occurred – and apart from saying or thinking ‘that’s a shocker’, I consign that sort of incident to the ‘shrug’ file, and grin if it is against another top club.
Then when I see other incidents, affecting the Arsenal, such as the penalty given to Sterling, I almost blow a gasket because I am/was convinced it was given in error. Then on Arsenal blogs I find fans who are very sanguine about it, and pronounce it as a perfectly correct decision by the ref.
I guess what I am saying is that many football decisions are arrived at as a referee’s judgements on what occurred, and if, after the event, even Gunners fans, who cannot fail to be biased in favour of our team, cannot agree among ourselves whether something was a foul or not — then ……… I would never claim that I am always right and others are wrong, and that includes the guy in the centre with the whistle, who frankly is always on to a hiding to nothing, as he will never please everyone.
[I put up a link a while back, which enables anyone to use a video link to see and react in a timed manner – whether someone was offside, or not.]
From my years chatting about football, I am convinced that a tremendous number of fans (not just Arsenal fans), and including the so-called expert ex-professional footballers – now commentators – have just a passing acquaintance with the FIFA Laws of Football.
There are only 17 of them – but without that knowledge how the hell can anyone have any chance of getting important decisions right.
You may have noticed that I have delayed revealing my score on the video offside tests — but I have now to come clean, even armed with a fairly useful knowledge of the Laws — I sadly only got 8 correct out of 13 or 15 different video clips.
[OK, I might kid you guys – but I cannot kid myself – there were 5 or 6 bare faced guesses among that lot] — so it is not as easy as it seems to be a referee — and I am not a referee! But I will still yell at them I disagree with their decisions — football is a passionate game!! lol
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I feel another expulsion to the sin bin/limbo of moderation is nigh – so I am off before the Chief Whip vents his/her wrath. lol
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Shots
Great post at 6:32
You have nailed it.
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To the point that its not easy to be a referee:
1) The argument that its difficult for the untrained makes no sense to me. If a building collapses, nobody comes to the structural engineer and say –> its okay, the math/physics are difficult. A random person in the street can’t do it properly, so its okay that a building collapsed and 1,000 lives were lost.
I realize refereeing is not an exact science, and these people are not super-human, but they are TRAINED professionals.
2) If they can’t cope with it, then the solution is obvious: VAR. I can sort of understand (not really) the argument that it ruins the flow of the game, because for penalties, fouls etc, it is still subject to interpretation.
Offsides on the other hand, especially the most egregious ones like this Sunday, are obvious and take 3 seconds in 99% of the cases.
The PL’s reluctance to introduce VAR at least for offside absolutely reeks of corruption.
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we were told that the making of Refs fully professional would mean much improved performances from then, well here we are 16 years on and I don’t see any improvement, in fact I would say that they are making far more game affecting errors.
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Nketiah scores four; Nelson and Willock feature as England U19s thrash Faroe Islands
by jeorge bird
Arsenal youngster Eddie Nketiah continued his prolific form as he scored four goals in England U19s’ 6-0 victory over Faroe Islands in Bulgaria today.
The young Lions got their European qualification campaign underway in fine fashion but they had to wait until the 23rd minute to open the scoring through the clinical Nketiah, who hit the headlines as he scored a brace for Arsenal in the Carabao Cup against Norwich City recently.
After Reiss Nelson, who produced an encouraging performance himself, had hit the post midway through the second half, Nketiah pounced to make it 2-0 and the striker completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot in the 78th minute.
In between Nketiah’s second and third strikes, Sunderland’s Elliot Embleton had also found the net, while Benjamin Brereton of Nottingham Forest also got on the scoresheet later in the game.
It was Nketiah who stood out the most, however, as he added another goal in stoppage time to complete his quartet of goals. He now has seven goals in three games for England U19s.
Midfielder Joe Willock, meanwhile, completed 70 minutes and played some impressive passes.
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I just hid for a couple of days.
Having read through im glad to say thanks PA’ers. It’s an excellent discussion going on.
You’ll not be surprised to know I see nowt accidental about the way Ars are treated. Indeed, it’s somewhat Intergrated, you know, officials,officialdom, reporting, nag, nag..
That, Shotta, is a masterpiece.
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Jeez it’s funny if it’s true Mourinho is agitating hard for more money and making noises about not having resources to compete with City.
Imagine if it’s true he is eyeing PSG and their budget and doesn’t have the balls to fight City here!
Even funnier considering Merson’s claim we’d win the title if Mou was our manager.
Not quite as funny is that these claims are mentioned uncritically, without judgement, in the press. A typical tactic across the news when they suddenly switch to pretending they are mere reporters of events.
Tactic has various uses but mostly done as a sort of tentative support of the claims made. The same press who directly or indirectly rubbish any claims finances play much of a role in our own fortunes or have any bearing on our chances of success.
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Tickets for Spurs on Ticket Exchange this morning if anyone is short ….
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Gareth Southgate claimed he left Jack Wilshere and others out of the England squad cos they have not played enough games for their clubs, but Danny Drinkwater who has played 2 BPL games, and 4 games in total this season, reveals that he turned down a call up by England for the 2 friendlies. Southgate is a hypocrite and a liar.
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I doubt Jack is any more bothered about Gareth Southgate than I am. If Jack gets a few games in the Meeja will be jumping up and down demanding he goes to Russia and Gareth will do what he is told. No doubt JW has talent. Tbh I would not pick him unless he really does put in 12-15 games.
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Southgate I’d a clueless puppet
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Gareth Southgate can’t pick Jack Wilshere because Henry Winter hates The Arsenal.
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Southgate now saying he did not pick Wilshere cos Arsenal are playing him out of position
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Harry Winter might dislike Arsenal but he sure loves Jack Wilshere. Great article that makes Southgate’s exclusion of JW looks more personal
Gareth Southgate’s muddled thinking over Jack Wilshere sets worrying precedent
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/gareth-southgates-muddled-thinking-over-jack-wilshere-sets-worrying-precedent-zvpw8ctbz?shareToken=f13864467860ba8d57e0f166feb8f8c3
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Mike Bassett was/is a better England manager then Southgate, Allerdici etc
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Not sure who the comedian was who put Mackay in charge of Scotland but I appreciate the humour.
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Can’t read the article on Jack. Would be a strange experience if it’s a good un as I loathe Winter
Think there’s a fair old chance these two games will be great ones for Jack anyway!
The names i remember for centre mid – Cork, Dier, Livermore, Loftus-Cheek- could be badly exposed for their passing and movement limitations.
Ali’s absence did make these two games a perfect opportunity to play Jack though. Can’t see any way they play well together as Jack for me needs two around/ behind him with good discipline and energy.
To get the best from him he needs some freedom and also not to have a whole lot of defensive responsibility.
As an extra defensive help on occasion, yes, but as the guy whose role means having to regularly close people down in own half or run back to try stop breaks, as I’ve seen him have to do when played deeper in poor set-up with England in past, no.
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Looks to me like Southgate is trying to interfere with the internal affairs of Arsenal – Jack, i want you to leave AFC at all costs.He is showing complete double standards to Jack compared to other, lesser players.
Not like there could possibly be an England manager influenced by the media, and agents, I am sure that has never happened before.
Jack himself just needs to bide his time and hold his nerve if he wants to stay, a lot of games coming up, injury prone players currently in is way, but wont always be. In addition, if we lose the likes of Ozil, and sadly Caz, his path becomes clearer.
On another note, as pleased as I will be to see Xhaka make the bent, corrupt farce of a tournament this summer, looks like the unfortunate Northern Ireland were victims of a ref who looked like he was auditioning for the PGMOL
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Just another example of certain groups within the game trying to unsettle AFC footballers (Please refer to the Özil “lazy” meme), I can only think of hundreds of millions of reasons why the best players/footballers (yep JW is one of England’s better footballers. He can pass and move and dribble and other weird stuff) at AFC would raise certain peoples’ blood pressure.
Just another blatant example of palpable and identifiable interests trying to undermine AFC.
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The Newscorp Oracle hath spoken:
“Wilshere needs to move abroad”
Is there anyone out there who can read and write, or who isn’t dead and dumb, that is still in denial about the outlier within the premier league that is arsenal football club?
Asking for a friend.
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southgate also said jack was played as a no.10 all last season at Bournemouth, but England no longer play with a no.10, but if they did that Alli and Lalanna would be ahead of jack for the position
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I suspect that Gareth Southgate may be engaging a much more sophisticated longer term strategy than Henry Winter or most of us England fans can discern.
It seems to me the cunning coach is creating an aura of total confusion and incompetence in his running of the England team, and in choosing players on an entirely random basis. He is allowing players to excuse themselves through ‘injury’ (coughs). It is chaos.
We will therefore go to Russia a laughing stock, with England expecting to receive the thrashing of our collective footballing lifetime.
And then Southgate will spring his trap ……………………..
BAM !
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I can see you are not altogether convinced ……
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I suspect his cunning plan will be doing what he, at least, thinks nobody expects them to do , and getting knocke out by the nation with the smallest population England are drawn against, playing a brand of football the civilized world has left behind, with the aim of letting opponents think that England are, in fact, crap. Only to rise, phoenix like again in the next tournament, hit new heights, and long balls, and possibly, this time, spring his trap, and get a draw against a mighty footballing nation like Costa Rica or Algeria.
A strategy tried and tested by the previous England managers
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As I say Mandy Southgate does not have much to lose. he has the advantage of no real pressure.
In 2010 we had a very capable manage in Capello, he’d won trophies everywhere, and some decent players, most of whom had many seasons of PL experience and CL success, and we were turned over. (though I do not hear much about the refereeing decisions in the German game that finally did for England on here )
Banned smiley
In 2014 we fancied our chances again, plenty of very experienced PL players, and just could not cope with a strong qualifying group.
So Gareth has a clean slate in Russia. He should get on and do what he thinks best and tell Winter to poke his opinions up his arse.
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Andy
It all evens out. 44 years later.
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By the way, England being on the receiving end of that decision really got them moving on doing something about it. The introduction of Goal Line ‘Technology’. Cricket got a camera on the line in the 90s. No reason football couldn’t have done that too. The ‘technology’ was always there. There was no will. Until a high profile incident affecting their own interests got them to move on it.
Now, they are lagging behind in VAR. Though I believe the FA Cup will have its use. But I’ve seen how it is working in Italy and although there are many individual penalty decisions that seem ‘soft’ or ‘wrong’ to me, it ensures a consistency in decisions.
I hold no such hopes of consistency by English refs. Because the media runs the show in England. Talk about putting the cart before the donkey. The media, including the commentators, exist not to enlighten the public, or analyse the game, but simply to sell the ‘product’. That’s why even when they say the referee got it wrong, they tend to say ‘he was conned’, or ‘it’s controversial’. Because they can’t be selling us a defective product after all, can they? Anyone who says that will find himself out of a job soon (Howard Webb replaced on BT, the ref who turned down PGMOL’s hush money – Halsey) Ref scandals have been unearthed in Italy and Germany. In England, such issues are never even looked at, or to be discussed. Instead we’ll blame the managers for whining, show sympathy for the tough job that refs do (what about the players or managers?), and mindlessly accept the quite clearly nonsense PGMOL statistics of 99% correct decisions. Because England is special like that and it would be impolite to even consider and protect against the possibility of something underhand going on.
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