Good Evening Positive AFC fans,
The first game of the 2018/2019 season under the belt, so to speak, and I feel a lot better with that opening obstacle concluded. A real thumping would have cast a pall over my week and I could not have that. Not the result we hoped for but a team performance that I thought was good overall.
Of the parts that impressed me most our teenage debutante Guendouzi stood out, and he earns his first MoTM award. Matteo was able to cope with the physical demands of the game, tackle cleanly, and showed himself able to control the ball with no time or space. There was some pre-match discussion on SKY about the speed/pace of the English PL game troubling foreign players. He had no obvious problem I saw. For the young Frenchman to put in the full 94 minutes with no obvious slacking toward the end also suggests good stamina. Lichtsteiner’s introduction at left back, although the circumstances of it were unfortunate, showed us what the highly experienced Swiss can do. He reads the game well and has that edge of cunning that we need in a cruel, cruel football world. In Michel Oliver’s face, pointing, shouting, even tearing a strip off Mesut at one point. On another day his goading of Aymeric would have seen the opponent on his way back to the dressing room with a red card for his cranial lunge. I like him.
I thought Petr pulled off a string of good saves today, and for a period in the First Half kept us in the game.. The notion that he should have done better on the Sterling goal is bollocks. The kicking out or passing out from the back though between Cech/Matteo/Sokratis/Skhodran ? THE STUFF OF NIGHTMARES!! Sort it out Mr Emery.
Of things we could have done better ? We created a number of half chances and potentially useful positions on the Citeh final third that we did not exploit. We looked rusty. At the key moment the pass to an Arsenal attacker went astray, too long, too short, Auba went left as the ball went right et cetera.At 0-1 we all know a goal for us would have left Pep’s boys reeling. Against good teams like Citeh we can expect only limited possessions around the opposition box and I felt today it was not used as it could/should have been. Scoring goals eh ? That is a thing.
I would also like to see more of Mkhi on the ball and challenging in midfield and that it was Aaron who got the hook first and the Armenian playing the full match was a surprise. He did OK but in the first 35 minutes he did not provide AMN with enough support. He worked better with Hector after the changeover but even then he had a air of Theo at times, always available but never involved.
Onwards to the Bridge next week to meet the currently table-topping Chelsea. Probably a busy week at Colney, identifying the parts of the machine that need to be sharpened, tightened and oiled.
Enjoy your week.
Positively Arsenal 
Umpire Hair had a gaggle of devoted weird supporters too.
What did they want?
Thankfully the rest of us sports lovers got what we wanted there, and we’ll get it in the footy too eventually.
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I’d say the PL referees and their organisation are accountable Shard. The organisation was set up and was/is funded by the PL clubs and their activity is determined by that reality. Like any organisation it seems likely to me that if the PL were unhappy with the referees they would communicate dissatisfaction direct, and insist appropriate remedy took place. Why would they not ?
As we saw in the delay to VAR’s introduction the clubs choose which way to go on major decisions and that is not ever likely to alter. Even if the referees wanted to alter the situation I do not see how that would work ?
I appreciate that you may feel that as a spectator of the sport that you would benefit from the opportunity to question in referees and hold them directly accountable. As you say it would be interesting to know why there are so few ‘Southern’ based referees. The only way I can see that coming pass is if the PL clubs decided to change their relationship with the referees and the PMGO. The place to agitate for change seems to me therefore to be with and through Gazidis and Stan, rather than demanding the PGMO alter its structure and approach and accusing them of secrecy though that is at the milder end of crimes they are charged with.
PS – the other day you mentioned I am a lawyer – honestly I’m not, never have been, never will be.
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Not so sure about that fins. The older power centres in cricket had to give up power because they annoyed the people with the growing markets and greater numbers. That’s when they decided to go the other way (The different responses to the match fixing scandal for the sub continent and the other teams didn’t escape me, even though I was a kid)
Of course, India then became the pre-eminent power and tried to delay the use of DRS as much as possible. Until they had decisions go against them, much like England with Goal Line Tech in football.
So who exactly is going to challenge the power of the PL? They’ll have to introduce VAR. It is inevitable. But I wouldn’t be sure we’ll get a clean game from them anytime soon. Unless people start switching to watching other leagues.
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He meant barrack-room lawyer. (banned laughing at my own joke face)
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“if the PL were unhappy with the referees they would communicate dissatisfaction direct, and insist appropriate remedy took place. Why would they not ?”
This is true. But the interests of the PL and the interests of the public don’t exactly coincide. The PL is happy because they are the richest league. You could argue that the public is happy because they keep tuning in. And maybe that’s true. But I don’t think it’s so much an approval as a captive habit and a lack of options (There is only one Arsenal)
Look, other leagues are more open about how they manage the working. They have non-professional refs who seem to work more professionally in their behaviour and decisions (I said seem, maybe only because they are more open) The PL’s attitude always seems to be shut up and enjoy this product we provide you. It is not for you to question.
It’s a great argument to influence the vote of individual clubs. In theory, they are free to vote however they want, but in practice it doesn’t always work that way. Especially, if the PL model and what they market themselves on, encourages greater spending on players and agents, thereby increasing the need for the clubs of the PL funds, thus aligning their interests with the league. It’s not even a conspiracy theory, and doesn’t really mean anything sinister either. But it, like any system, is open to being corrupted from its original intent. In the absence of transparency with an ‘independent auditor’ (in this case the public) with the amounts of money floating around there, I think it is highly likely to be corrupt. And as we know, the British govt treats that level of ‘evidence’ as proof (banned smiley)
Even in terms of organisational design. Was it even designed to deal with the influences and pressures that the sheer size of money and coverage brings? The changes in player power, the rise of agents, oligarchs and countries(!) owning clubs. Is the design of the league and the PL and the PGMO geared to guard against the sort of pressures that accompanied this sudden rise? I think those are fair questions to ask, and the amount of money is actually a greater argument to ask them rather than keep shut about them.
PS. I don’t know why I thought you are/were a lawyer. Apologies.
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“The organisation was set up and was/is funded by the PL clubs and their activity is determined by that reality. Like any organisation it seems likely to me that if the PL were unhappy with the referees they would communicate dissatisfaction direct, and insist appropriate remedy took place. Why would they not ?”
Well, Arsène Wenger, as the face of Arsenal directly expressed his dissatisfaction with referees and that hadn’t worked out so well for him.
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I am quite sure that the PL, and referee in the PL, could be improved, and I doubt either the owners of the referees would disagree. Like any organisation PL football must evolve and develop or it will decay and eventually fail.
The ‘difficulty’ those calling for reform have however is that the PL like most if not every big business organisation is innately cautious and will tend to the status quo in respect of innovation. Second it is, by any on/off field, financial measure, hugely successful. In that circumstance what is the incentive to change, other than at a pace the majority are content with ?
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If you lay hands on a PL referees, or call them a cheat, then it does not matter who you are Labo, or how justified you feel in your anger. You are done.
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Yes Andy. I agree. They have very little incentive to change. They also have very little disincentives against using the status quo for their own, rather than the sport’s/public’s benefit either. Which is why highlighting their poor working and not relying only on their self assessments is even more important. Traditionally, the media is supposed to play this role. Those days are gone, sadly. They are as much a part of the establishment with their interests tied into the PL model as anyone else.
So the demand for answers has to come from the fans. Instead, we get an effort to keep the fans divided on the basis of club loyalties (which obviously exist but do not necessarily stand in opposition to loyalty to a fair sport) or treat anyone who suggests there’s something wrong to be treated as an idiot. It’s not unique to football by the way. Like you said it is like any other big business. Which makes your continued defense of them along those very lines, very strange to me.
I guess I thought you were a lawyer because you keep playing the devil’s advocate (banned smiley)
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Wenger was definitely wrong. ‘Dishonest to your federation’ was obviously such an unjust and ridiculous charge. Dean is completely loyal and honest to his federation.
Wenger would be a great politician. Probably not a successful one though.
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Shard
It is interesting how the Indian board were against VARs.
I still haven’t watched an IPL match to date!
Wasn’t surprised at the scandals that occurred as there were no safeguards built into the league and ownership structure.
What is hilarious is that Mike Riley’s supporters appear incapable of conjuring a better defence then any proffered by Hair’s discredited supporters (that includes the ACB, and explains some of the worldwide hilarity at events earlier this year..).
Yep. All very funny when you think about it.
Keith’s Hackett the former head of the pgMOB is anti-English, did you know that!???!! Amazing grace in that Revalation. I feel enlightened.
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If there were better channels to voice unhappiness and actual accountability AW would never have feel the need to brush away an official’s pointy finger nor call anyone a cheat – who admitted to his peers he was wrong and not those he disadvantaged. Leaking whatsapp messages is not official channels of communication.
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Shard
I meant offence meant by comments regarding the IPL! I hope you haven’t taken the comments as a personal attack against the national style of play in cricket, as pollution of your precious bodily fluids ( that is a quote and I can cite the source! dr. Strangeglove!)
I hope you don’t randomly conclude that I am anti-Indian!
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fins
I’ve never watched the IPL. Except the first ever match, out of curiosity. And ever since whenever I’ve tried to tune in, the sheer amount of advertising on screen and at every break, including a full strategic ad break implanted on there, just put me off.
I don’t watch much cricket anymore. Sometimes if I have time I’ll casually watch a test match. Particularly those played in England, or in the southern hemisphere. The look of the green grass and the swinging ball makes it enjoyable. West Indies is a fun venue too, but the games there are dull since the pitches are dead.
One Day cricket is boring because it’s become a battle between two batting sides rather than bat and ball. Though maybe that has changed a little for the better now?
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fins
We’ve got enough ‘anti-nationals’ at home to go out looking for ones from outside. (Not sure you’ll get that joke, but banned smiley nonetheless)
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“If you lay hands on a PL referee, or call them a cheat, then it does not matter who you are …or how justified you feel in your anger. You are done.”
You do know, as do most others, Arsense “was done” long before that incident. What happened to Arsenal, on and off the pitch, contests your reassurance that a PL club can and has the power to change questionable and damaging PGMO practices pertaining to that club.
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Tangent, but on the North-South balance does anyone think that a resurgent Leeds would be great for the PL? I don’t think the north west clubs have enough derbies since all the Greater Manchester sides have disappeared, but Leeds is the biggest loss.
I’d love City and United to have to visit a nasty, seething den of hate every season, especially if Leeds are half-decent. More reason to get behind Bielsa.
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BK
I am a little bit gutted that we won’t get to enjoy a match between a Wenger team vs a Biesla team in the English league (yikes I hope that you don’t deliberately and weakly misinfer that to be an attack on England!)
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The MCC is a well known very conservative business organisation that managed to reform itself.
Nearly thirty years ago!
Yet they still retained their ties and traditions (I think women can eat their lunch in the long room now? Maybe not…? I don’t know!)
The above is not my subjective opinion.
But it is the historical record.
How or why did they do it?
Are they also anti-English?
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Shard
Probably in the way it’s implemented. The main problem seems to be that it takes ages to sort a review & the viewing public (at home and at the match) are left wondering what’s going on.
I don’t know what was actually voted on, but from from what we saw at the WC grappling might be treated more seriously now, although Mustafi might not agree after being hauled down last Sunday.
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Er, *whoosh*, I assume that wasn’t for my benefit, FP. I’ve kind of gone off in England in the last two years.
Anyway, yeah, it would have been fun against one of his shambolic sides after it’s all fallen apart and the players have got sick of his weirdness. The other way would have been stressful to watch. I want to see us play great football, but I’m not interested in Arsenal matches being exciting contests.
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I don’t really understand why the issues have to be invariably be seen in such black and white/bipolar terms. I see I am a “supporter” of Mike Riley !!
The PL owners in April, the 13th I think, delayed VAR to allow more testing of the systems. I remember it being reported and thinking it was a bit disappointing but understandable. I have looked at our blog over April and I cannot see one comment on relating to the decision at the time.
Two – Three- Four months later it is centre stage.
Why is that ?
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I hope Leeds get back and I never imagined after the Ridsdale debacle that 15 years later they would still be walllowing around out of the top flight. “Living the dream” indeed.
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If the non-professional pgMOB are accountable then why did the former head of the pgMOB launch a public attack on the organisation where he said as a critique, and I quote:
“Who makes these decisions?!”
https://talksport.com/football/406242/keith-hackett-premier-league-video-assistant-referee-var/amp/
When you, I and he all know who the current head of the pgMOB is.
This incorrect projection of accountability matches no known standards or procedures for any known or referrable professional organisation out there. And apparently doesn’t even match other leagues which have non-professional (by name) associations for their officials. But everyone is entitled to an opinion!
Asking on behalf of a friend. Thanks.
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https://tomorrow.dfl.de/broadcast/video-assistant-2018-19-more-transparency-for-spectators-in-stadiums-and-on-screens-calibrated-offside-line-deployed/
An example of the League keeping supporters in the loop (while acknowledging the issues, and accounting for the delays in the lower league)
If the PL did similar, we could at least discuss the issues as they are rather than speculate.
If it is the time taken, say it is the time taken along with how long it takes, and what is the target time. If it is clubs not sure the refs go to the VAR fairly in applicable situations, then say that. If the technology is the issue, or the information given to clubs is the issue say that.
For instance, the Jagielka red card. They didn’t even communicate that to the public (maybe even to the club) as to why that was given, without flip flopping on that.
But it seems secrecy is paramount. And it only adds to the doubts over their intent. They seem to not want a proper informed discussion on the issues.
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Secrecy and Confusion actually. Whether it be on this or the actual effing rules of the game. Why rely on the media thicko pundits when you can clearly communicate issues after every match through your website, even though ideally it should be through the referees themselves after the game.
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If the clubs were concerned about the situation then do you not think the clubs would take the matter up with the referees’ organisation ?
There seems to be an assumption that as spectators we have a right to be part of the decision making process, and that the PL clubs, referees – everyone apparently! – should be available and accountable to us.
while it may be a heartfelt wish to have a say in the sport we care about I have never seen football run on those lines, and I doubt I ever will – this side of the revolution at least.
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Shard; it looks as thought the Germans have addressed some of the problems that caused so much criticism in VARs first season there.
We’ll probably get some ideas of where we’re at during the FA & League Cup matches.
Hoping to see it in place next season, and we’ve been without it since forever, so lets get it right first, but I do like the German model you’ve shown there.
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And having seen some of the antics of the so called Arsenal fans in the past few seasons on the internet – Black Scarves, AFTV, protest marches – the notion of allowing some sort of free for all on how football is run or officiated is a not on, no siree, not ever.
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Leeds taking even longer to recover from their encounter with Risdale/O’Leary then it took Liverpool to recover from whatever it was that Brand Souness did to them (at least they didn’t end up like Servco FC…), though its possible to conclude that even Liverpool are still recovering.
I have some weak perhaps misguided hope that Mourinho will leave a similar legacy at Utd but he won those cups in his first year (Atletico a little more testing then Ajax!) so maybe not.
To suggest he’s been the same as the two above would be to act like those idiots who deacribe a great team that won three trophies in four years on a lower budget etc as a “negative spiral”, which is what the blaggers have been doing. I’m not going to go there myself.
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“There seems to be an assumption that as spectators we have a right to be part of the decision making process”
Blimey.
All I’ve ever read is requests for greater transparency and communication exactly the same as in every other sport.
Andy these continuous errors regarding the opinions and words expressed by others lead me to logically conclude that your browser must have some kind of text affecting virus.
I recommend Windows Essentials.
You can download it from the company website…
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Keeping us informed is the same as conceding decision making power? I wonder why other leagues and other sports share such info with the public though. The NBA goes as far as to have the NBA ref organisation on Twitter for the public to ask specific questions (they don’t respond to all, understandably, but they do respond) Not sure what the status is now but the German league had refs give post match interviews regularly. The rules of engagement for the media also seem to be a little different, in that regular commentators criticise wrong decisions and stupid rules, without decrying all refs. Not being afraid to say mea culpa is the sign of a professional. Pgmo and the PL really really struggle with that. They like to pretend their decision making is perfect, even when it clearly is wrong.
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no anicol, I don’t see anyone asking for fans to be part of the decision making process with VAR, they just want like in Rugby, to be informed of what is going on, Rugby refs are miked up, the VAR is miked up, the TV and Radio audience gets to hear the discussion, many times they actually get educated in the actual rules of the game, why the decision reached by the VAR has been reached, many times the actual rule quoted,
I don’t think the spectators at the game get to hear the refs/var discussion, unless they have a link to a radio or tv, but they do get to see the actual replays the VAR views, what he slows down and reviews etc. There is not any good reason that I can think of, that the same procedure can not be used in football, can you come up with a good reason as to why we can’t copy Rugby on VAR.
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shard you are wrong, the pgmol don’t claim to be perfect, the actually admit to getting 2% of decisions in games wrong.
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Mea culpa ed. I got that horribly wrong.
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For me, the worst was the whole Jon Moss did you hear from TV thing, and the decision it covered. Not only did they not seek to explain what the hell he meant by asking TV for anything (which is against their own stated rules) , they said the dive was actually not a dive, which ok, is debatable. But the worst was that they chose to redefine the rules regarding offside to say that a clearly incorrect decision was actually correct.
Their reasoning being that Lovren touched the ball deliberately. When the rule specifically covers for a ‘deliberate save’ near the goal not being deemed the same as a pass back.
And they only spoke up directly because they wanted to limit the damage. Otherwise their talking is done indirectly through the media adding further confusion, which is exactly how they like it.
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Based upon the pgMOBs published data, worth the aid of VARs they should have an accuracy rating of over 100%.
Perhaps Keith Hackett feels that such examples of risibly unprofessional or laughable conduct by the pgMOB is not serving his profession’s best interest and is certainly not best practice. That would make more sense then weakly failing to infer that he (Keith) is anti-English. I can’t read his mind but please forgive me if I speculate in favour of the former above the latter.
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I agree eddy and hopefully when VAR comes in at some point in the PL the communication between officials and the crowd will improve. It is matter of the right technology, used in the right way and practise.
I think the problem of miking up referees in football, in England at least, comes down to the frequent foul mouthed comments of players. The Arsenal documentary when David Eleray was miked up sunk that boat for many years. John Terry and is f***** b**** c*** comment didn’t add much to the broadcasters confidence. It was a pity really as players could have behaved better and should have behaved better.
As we have discussed with the attitude of PL owners to change generally why would you take the risk ?
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I have no idea where the 2% error figure comes from ( feel free to tell me) but I assume it has to do with game changing/important errors. 2% sounds about right for refs.
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“he PL owners in April, the 13th I think, delayed VAR to allow more testing of the systems. I remember it being reported and thinking it was a bit disappointing but understandable. I have looked at our blog over April and I cannot see one comment on relating to the decision at the time.”
Andy, almost as if we’re actually more interested in the football. Plus, you may recall, that shortly after, a certain manager made a certain announcement.
The on-field swearing is a poor argument. They already fined Wayne Rooney for swearing for the camera. Which means they need no ‘rule change’ to enforce this. If that is what they really want start punishing players. The NBA does it. No swearing on the bench(that’s where the mics are). No one to leave the bench area if there is any on court fight. Big fines followed initially. But the players learned quickly. By the way, sometimes the crowd can be heard swearing too. The commentators apologise for it, but no one suggests we should just mute all crowd noise. So why keep the inter-ref and ref-player interactions secret?
ORRRRRR..Just put them up on a separate online feed where people sign in to listen to it. ORRRRR make it available in its entirety post match with fair warnings as to colourful language. Took me all of two minutes to come up with a solution. Of course, being secretive is not a problem to them at all. It’s a feature, not a bug.
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The concerns regarding swearing will swiftly be filed alongside the earnest concerns over divers like hazard, another weak and mislaid and irrelevant deflection, when VARs is properly introduced. As seen in the World Cup where a tv monitor and replay button put Brand Neymar where it belongs.
Swiftly into the archive.
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Any other skittles waiting to be knocked over?
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It is the PGMOL themselves that comes up with saying they get 98% of all decisions correct being reported through the media.
Now we know things the media says must be taken with a pinch of salt – if only they had an official website to clear up confusion.
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Now I’m also sure 98% sounds right. Getting goal kicks, corners, throw-in decisions correct contribute a lot of stat padding in that regard.
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Fucking hell, it’s lively on here today.
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the 98% comes direct from the PGMOL themselves
as for foul and abusive language, well its against the rules, and once again only the refs/pgmol can answer why they allow it, a pre start of season warning to all clubs and then total enforcement and you will find after a few players get yellows and even leading to reds, that players will just not do it, look at the pulling and dragging at the WC, it only took a few games till players stopped doing it at corners and freekicks, VAR caught them, and they quickly understood they could not do it, in fact its the same with any rule that is enforced. Refs are there to enforce the rules,
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Ah – the PL owners want to keep exchanges between players and officials and players and players and officials and officials secret. On the basis presumably that if there was something secret to say the person would forget about the mike and blurt it out !!
That sounds slightly less likely, in my view obviously, to the PL just not giving a toss if refs and players are miked up and somewhat reluctant to leave their billion £ product in the hands of Wazza, JT, Carra and their ilk.
Slowly slowly though things might change.
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You should get on to Ivan eddy – tell him at the next quarterly PL meeting that the clubs must tell refs to crack down on swearing. That is the way to get things done.
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Reflecting on the matter I think I’d probably prefer the NFL model where if there is an infield decision to be made he switches on his mike after the game has stopped and away from the players to announce the decision. When he is finished he switches off.
Fascinating though it may be as an exercise in linguistic anthropology finding out how PL players say fuck off in 14 languages does not appeal to me.
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“somewhat reluctant to leave their billion £ product in the hands of Wazza, JT, Carra and their ilk.”
They are so worried by foul language that they’d rather not enforce rules to stop it, and on the other hand, this justifies keeping the paying public confused as to why refs made the calls they did. Ok. That doesn’t sound strange at all. I mean, we just happened to hear a stray conversation of a ref asking for TV which got the Pgmo out of their shells to make a ‘nothing to see here’ comment, but it doesn’t bother them at all that we might hear more. That’s also why refs sign a non disclosure agreement in exchange for their ‘pensions’. Why ‘good’ retired refs are given positions in the media while the ones that refuse the NDA find themselves out of a job quick. Because they just care about the swearing.
You don’t half say some weird things Andy.
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