Good morning Positive people,
I am the wrong man to provide any form of detailed match review today. “Not much difference this week then” I hear some of you say, but this week I did not seen the game live or on stream, but listed to it on the radio and followed it on Twitter. God it was hard work. I did later supplement the audio experience with the highlights on Sky and on MotD so I saw most of the good bits. And of the bad bits ? Well I heard the howls of rage and frustration via the radio. As for the main target of the ire, in the ground and on the internet, referee Tierney can never, ever have been described so frequently by the same digital descriptors in so short a period in his life.
Of my impressions of the match itself ? We came into the game physically tired and it showed.Part of that fatigue was down to injuries and that we had no Ramsey and Ozil and the same layers had to turn out again for another hard working performance against game opponents. I can see, I think, why UE started with Laca and PEA up front. His aim was breaking the Terriers open early and being a goal or two ahead after which, after half time, we could control the game and ease off. We had a comfortable win against them last year and they have let in a lot of goals away from home. I could see his logic. Unfortunately when that opener did not come there was no opportunity to lower the team’s gear and I thought we were forced to work as hard against the Yorkshiremen as we had in either of our previous two contests against loftier opponents.
Despite that frustration however we did keep our concentration. Our energy did not wane. With 80%+ possession we pressed until, finally, the visitors cracked and our Uruguayan dynamo flew through the air. It was a very good goal, the ball from Matteo, the take down and control of Auba and, most spectacular of all, the scissors kick from Lucas.
The second positive in the game, which proved as decisive as Torreira’s winner, was the success the defence had in stopping Huddersfield scoring. It was as long ago as September since we had last had a “0” in the Premier League.
Man of the Match award for the game though ? For his constant energy yesterday and on Wednesday step forward and hold out your hand Matteo Guendouzi.
Of our opponents read and heard a lot of abuse about their approach to the game but what I saw they defended well, albeit stretching the rules to the limit. 12 months of PL football has made Wagner less starry-eyed I suspect. They will be disappointed that they did not have another 12 minutes in them to cling on. As last year though I fancy they will survive.
So a decent interval until Southampton and every prospect of taking advantage of the chaos at St Mary’s, a tricky ground in recent years. In the interim Qarabag, and you will be pleased to hear I am in the Clock End for that one. I shall spare no gory detail.
Enjoy sunday.
Positively Arsenal 
Nice one Andrew, and I too shared your radio/twitter ‘experience’ which, to say the least, was a mixed one. Oh for the days of Ceefax …
Suspect, given the ludicrous fixture list for December, there will be more than a few twists and turns in terms of league placings. And over at the Bridge City’s prized unbeaten status was pleasingly prised from them. Liverpool next, please, preferably before the turn of the year.
Thanks to the fixtures, December certainly ‘feels’ like the month when a lot of injuries can occur although my main concern on this front is the strength and welfare of Torreira’s ankles, which even Talksport’s questionable commentary acknowledged were getting a fair amount of attention from his opponents (even if it all was perfectly legal).
Pretty certain Jack’s club demise was at least in part due to several years of having his ankles targeted in a similar way so it’ll be something of a tragedy bordering on the sinister if the the Uruguayan were to end up in the same dark place. To my ear – and according to the ‘evidence’ of the yellow card mountain, yesterdays ‘disappointing’ referee did little to discourage the prolonged assault, although the commentary team’s response was that Lucas was going down too easily …
Tough month ahead – 7 points out of 9 to kick off with ain’t bad at all.
Having already unnecessarily lost Rob Holding for lord knows how long, let’s hope the month doesn’t go on to wreck the season at the hands of incompetent refereeing and emboldened thuggery.
At least it will be the last ever Xmas without VAR to turn to, so there is always that, I suppose.
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Good three points, not the best performance, but mitigating circumstances, as stated, injuries, Ramsey and Ozil.
But, I just don’t get why the refs are so permitting of overly physical tactics, as much as I may curse, I suspect that is more down to instruction, direct or implied from above rather than the individual refs.
Wengers teams seemed more likely to eventually just seem forced to accept this physical, and in many cases, illegal treatment and counter it by trying to play football, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t when certain players were unavailable or off colour. I Remember some especially painful away games where Pulistic Allardycian tactics were readily employed and amply rewarded. But I see the green shoots of a more cynical counters to this under Emery, perhaps with the merest nod to our neighbours and a couple teams above us. Mr Tierney was not buying it yesterday, if he applies the same approach to going down easily to certain other teams, he is a ref who will improve, in my expectations at least.
Look forward to observe the next Tottenham game Mr Tierney takes charge of. Or Liverpool, or City.
But ultimately , well done to Emery, his staff and the players, not always easy or always pretty but he is doing very well by any metric, especially for a new manager and considering who he has followed.
Don’t usually like to call out individual players in what appears to be a great team ethic, but would be remiss not to memtion the name Torriera this week. What a player.
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Thanks Andrew, you have captured to good bits perfectly.
Although we weren’t altogether and convincing, considering we bit more than a bit leggy, we overcome both a very mean-spirited referee and Huddersfield outfit to show the fight this team have to earn the points, we were good value for at the end of the day, getting back to winning ways after Trafford draw.
Well deserve even if just a usual week’s rest and relaxation in the ice bath. Punt on Eddie for a hat-trick vs Qarabag.
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Good ‘en Andy although this was no normal game, the six bookings in 10 minutes was because ref lost control of the game earlier than I thought possible and it was surprising that there wasn’t a few bad injuries. Again the first rule of the officials to protect the players was duely ignored and then the errors of judgement added to their
incompetency. Football needs to be flooded with technolgy including timekeeping and this inconjucntion with the dispanding of the pgmol as they are proving more and more they are not fit for purpose. I want to watch teams and players at their best and although the fixture lists may take some, to have this further reduced by officials “levelling the playing field” is a dereliction of duty and a waste of talent.
I said before the game this would be close and so it proved although we were so wasteful in front of goal and that made the job very much harder.
My MOTM would have to be Hector who never stopped running and was dangerous going forward and efficient at the back. If his speed ever went away its certainley back now and on a day when many looked tired he looked a Duracell bunny.
Our unbeaten run continued however it will be extreamly difficult to maintain this through December as we have previously lost at both grounds on the south coast (especially saints near Christmas and their new manager). Add to that our game with spuds which after there humiliation in the league and their lack of trophies will put out their strongest side. Add to this we face a burnley side who will sit deep and kick us off the park and then finish off with the team unbeaten and top of the league.
This is a hard list normally but the fact six games are squeezed into 16 days and we have a very small squad means we will be tested to the limits and to not expect one poor performance out of those games woud be naive.
On the plus side our youngsters will be needed and this could be a very important month for them and a time for them to prove they are worthy of a carreer at ARSENAL.
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I did not have a problem with Tierney carding Guendouzi and Shkodran, although Granit was a bit harsh. What was unsatisfactory was that he did not apply the same standard to some equally light contact and heavy ‘falls’ that Huddersfield committed.
Roll on more booking of players for diving, and I honestly think it will do Matteo no harm at all to get his knuckles rapped for cheating, but it has to be even handed.
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I see Chelsea’s win over Citeh is being overshadowed by the nutcase in the glasses (and 2-3 nutcases next to him);
WTF is the matter with people.
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“I did not have a problem with Tierney carding Guendouzi and Shkodran, althiugh Granit was a bit harsh. What was unsatisfactory was that he did not apply the same standard to some equally light contact and heavy ‘falls’ that Huddersfield committed.”
That’s exactly the problem right there that me and others have with referees Andrew. Arsenal players are getting throw with the full might of football law whilst their opponents can show a total disregard for it that refs just allow them to. It’s what made me want to pull my hair out yesterday…
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Wagner having a quiet moan on referees and on Tierney’s performance yesterday;
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/football/news/david-wagner-reveals-referees-apologise-15526464
Shakes head
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Really enjoyed your review anicoll5. I detected a slight spring in your step though, after a week that was a bit of a drag.Must be good times to some degree for us if two wins and a draw are a drag!
As for the nutcase, seems to be very frightened bloke to me.
Anyway, may the force be with you and all Positive Goonerai’s.
COYG!
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anicol of the 3 Mustafi was the most clear contact, it is the one that AFC should be appealing, he did indeed fall unnaturally but everytime its done to us we are told that its clever, or what players have to do to show ref contact was made, there was certainly more contact on him that there was on Son last week, or on hazard last season, and as others pointed out, it would not have been so bad if Tierney had booked HTFC players for similar unnatural falls, but he did not. Tierney’s performance marks him out as the long term replacement for Mike Dean.
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The disallowing of Lacazette’s goal was unbelievable, another one of those interpetation of the rules only applied to Arsenal, how a player can be offside from a back pass is a mystery only the PGMOL can explain,
on our 3 bookings for dives, well for me both Mustafi and Xhaka had contact made to them, they did fall strangely but is that a booking in itself, if so how do spurs not get several yellows a game then, as for Guendouzi, I would really like to see some video of it from behind the goal, I found it odd that this was an angle not shown by the media, as there is camera’s covering all angles now, and I would like to see such angle before I condemn him as a diver, if no contact made, or if he was the one making the contact as it seems from the front angle shown, then shame on him, also would not like to see him perform his convincing “innocent face” again either.
on the diving, anyone see Ian Wright on Motd last night, he slammed the AFC players for the 3 bookings, but in another game he excused far clearer dives. Typical of the man.
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Never thought about it before but, looking at that Huddersfield paper, I guess that’s one thing we and other London clubs don’t get which all others around the country do- an extremely partisan local paper/s.
May be showing my lack of London knowledge up badly with that!
I’m aware, sort of, that there are local papers- Islington Gazzete?- but am assuming it’s not quite the same deal or anywhere near the same scale as, for instance, main Manchester paper, Liverpool, and even your Huddersfield’s, Norfolk’s and your Swansea’s.
I barely ever read about the Swans in my local paper, but am pretty sure it will follow that Huddersfield one exactly in nature : for instance it appears that with yesterday’s game they would state as fact ours were all clear bookings for diving, while heavily insinuating, or more, old Pritchard was hard done by, as the defender ‘put pressure’ on him. No mention of their kicking. The offside clearcut,etc,etc.
Stoke’s is very bad for it. Read a half dozen articles over the years and it could be written by Pulis himself, with a very concerted effort to distort the truth and feed hatred towards us.
It’s connected to another, probably bigger, difference. While there might be as many Arsenal fans in London as other big clubs can claim in their cities, the connection between city or town and club/s (a few have two) is nowhere near as strong.
You know it,folks, I’m thinking of this as one explanatory factor, in the pot, for how things are as they are.
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Yesterday no BPL team committed more fouls in the first half of their game than HTFC did v AFC, yet somehow we were the ones with more bookings
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Eddie, for me the Guendouzi one looked similar to the pen Zaha got at the Nest in 2-2 draw. He knew foot was coming in and just kinda left his leg out there out to draw the contact. Or to use the more technical term, “smart and clever”. Ref wasn’t having any of it though. Depoirte ran interference on Sokratis, inviting the body check and I had my heart in my throat. Seen one given on Xhaka in the 3-3 draw vs Bournemouth at the Vitality.
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I actually thought and, after watching again on the box, still think that the ref got most decisions correct.
The one that I’m not so sure about is Xhaka’s apparent dive. I think that was a harsh decision at best. Why would someone dive when they were running into space? The old rugby ‘tap tackle’ can be as effective a stopper as a crunching shoulder-first bulldozing challenge.
I also think Xhaka’s performance emphasised just how much he was missed at Old Trafford.
Torreira has to be breaking records in the ‘fewest appearences taken to start seeing ‘legend’ appear in the written praise of some. Certainly a touch earlier for such in my mind but also one can see why some might be getting excited.
From my count at the game at least half a dozen times he was clattered. One tackle, right in front of us, would have seen any other player rolling around, clutching at the tackled limb, but up he gets, limps a bit and on with the task.
Back to the ref:
I think, if it were a game not involving Arsenal, that it would be easy to say “a ref booking the divers, excellent” There were 6 or 7 yellow cards – at least 3 per side – at the half and at least one of our opponents was for simulation too.
If players know “this Tiernay bloke will book you if he thinks you dived” this can only be a good thing, no?
Was a game of patience yesterday, and good things do come to those who wait. Or so it seems more and more, this season. Offer the last 7 points won, prior to the three games being played… would be someone even more optimistic than I that didn’t take that. And that’s really bloody optimistic indeed.
onward…
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Only one yellow was even mildly correct. Mustafi was fouled and it was a Pen. Xhaka was tripped, the advantage was with him , not in a FK in the middle of nowhere.
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Steve
If Tierney emerges in time as the real deal on diving, a ref who will book without hesitation if he believes no contact, and will also book if there is contact but the player falls unnaturally, pretends it hurt when it almost certainly doesn’t- that would be good news and I’ll owe him a big old mental apology.
I suspect nothing of the sort will happen.
Main reason for that is that it’s filtered immediately through my intense distrust of prem officials, especially in their treatment of us.
It will be same deal as Xhaka’s red vs Swansea.
The rules never enforced that way again in that case, with, later in season, the same ref apologetically, with that sheepish,coy smile he reserves for those occasions, handing a yellow to Everton’s JonJoe Kenny when he did the same to break an attack, only at greater speed over a longer distance and with a lot more venom and force in a wild lunge.
A dead giveaway is if this one didn’t even treat the Huddersfield players the same yesterday- in a home match (for natural reasons- crowd, psychology, pressure- this usually means more favourable decisions for home teams) , with big club vs small club (less natural or acceptable, but surely equally real through almost all the football world)
Impossible to measure, but those bookings could well do more than superficial harm to us, as well as giving Talksport guys one of their best weeks in a while.
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It will be interesting to see whether the “dives” go to the diving panel and which way they swing on review… considering some of the stuff they judged as not dives.
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Steve, I think you’ve been talking to the people in the row behind to much. Keep your eyes fixed on the game.
Joking aside watch the whole game again this was another dangerous ref. Like I said previously he lost control of the game very early and then he flashing his yellow all over the place, this in turn led to every foul being a yellow in the eyes of the players.
Basically no control, no consistently and in the end no competence.
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Rich, Ian.
I think Mustafi was touched but it didn’t justify the theatrical fall. Guendouzi was nothing but a dive and, as I said above, I think Xhaka’s made no sense at all, as a dive and that one was, imo wrong where the others were not.
One of there fella’s definitely dived and was booked for it.
Agree Rich, that it would be good if Tierney emerges as just that, a no diving/playacting ref and I don’t have as much cynicism as you on that one…yet.
He may well also have thought “I will not be swayed by a home crowd” and this may indeed have gone against us.
Ian, my regular nemesis wasn’t there behind me yesterday so very little banter in that direction – plenty in others mind.
Young chap was with his dad directly behind me yesterday. He has seen one draw and the rest have been wins thus far, in his football attending career. Better than any lucky socks, that fella.
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Diving and, to my mind the even worse, feigning serious injury, is a scourge and I would be to delighted to see any means employed to discourage it. It is the rolling round and squealing that is absolutely wrong imo.
I think Tierney was hard on Xhaka, balance of probability correct on Mustafi and bang on with Matteo.
If two players were booked every game for the same and similar offences in every PL game between now and and 1st January 2019 I’d be pleased
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the thing is anicol as we seen yesterday the ref did not book the HTFC players for similar incidents, (they had 3 penalty appeals, all 3 fell as much if not more theatrically as Mustafi) but they were just waved away, no bookings, that is the main problem, its one eyed reffing. Its similar to how they will book one team on their first foul but warn another team several times about it before booking, time wasting too its similar, we seen it yesterday when he warned HTFC about it, but did not book them for it despite them continuing to do it. It was the usual “look at me, I’m taking no nonsense” from the ref but in reality it was mere theater, all for show, no substance.
the first thing a ref must be is even handed. I wait eagerly to see Tierney in action in a spurs game, I predict that there will be far more dives from spurs, but his approach to them will akin to his approach to the HTFC dives yesterday, and not the bookings we seen dished out to AFC players. I really hope I’m wrong, but I’ve seen it too many times in recent years, God what am i saying, recent years, recent weeks would be more accurate, to expect even handedness or consistency from these refs.
I asked this earlier, but when was the last time any of you seen a goal ruled out for offside when possession was gained from a back pass
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just a thing to note on the Referee for those that are hoping that he will be the bane of divers, he is 4 years reffing in the BPL, he is now in his 3rd season in the select group, he has over 40 games in it so far, and he had 7 years in the football league, but yesterday was the day he decided to book AFC players for diving.
In BPL he averages 3 bookings per game, and a sending off every 21 games. This guy is no bane to the rule breakers, and nothing suggests he will be in the future either, not unless they are wearing the AFC shirt.
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Quite right eddy – If you look at my 12.46 post I mentioned it was disappointing Tierney did not book any Huddersfield players for v similar offences.
More yellow cards for cheating, whatever the colour of the shirt, sounds right to me.
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but as we seen anicol it was one eyed from the ref, so no indication that he is someone the serial divers have to fear, as I said above, Tierney had done 42 games in BPL and 7 years in FL and somehow yesterday he decides that this was the game he would come down hard on the divers, but not both teams, no just the ones in red and white, he averages 3 bookings per game, but got 3 AFC for the very same act of diving in one game, there is as much chance that he has a dislike for Red and White kits as he does for players who dive, as nothing he has done in his ten year reffing career in BPL and FL suggests he is or is going to be the man to help rid the game of divers, or at the very least punish them.
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Games per year : 1,4,10,16,11 (so far)
Pgmol been slow warming to the Tierneyator and bit unsure about him, but well on track to have his best year and be on the main roster.
They like what he’s doing recently anyway- whether that includes being the scourge of divers everywhere I don’t know- as he did three in 8 days.
That new one Kavanagh, who stood out a lot in a few championship games, and then looked very good in a couple of his early prem games, is continuing his rapid rise I believe. Think I heard something about on FIFA list now. He was 4th official who sought out Marriner midweek in break for Holdings injury to say something.
He got 15 his second year, so there’s a lot more confidence in him than in that nemesis of divers Tierney early doors
Hope he proves as fair as he seems talented. I had very high hopes a few years back for Michael Oliver, but they sure have dipped, especially in that spell he gave about 5 pens in six games against us, mostly for Mustafi level pens.
Another Lancashire lad, like Tierney. Manchester this time. If the South can’t start producing any high calibre refs they may have no choice but to regularly use Manc/ Liverpool lads for games involving them, as there won’t be any others.
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Pritchard was on a yellow, clipped Torreira’s ankles to stop him breaking away barely two metres from the ref and ref just blew a foul. One of those Xhaka got straight red cared for. Ref didn’t even bother giving Pritch a talking to to give him a final warning or something.
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A bit of a read about our Hector in Mondial mag. Just a general article about the player, his likes, hobbies, views, and curiously, how much Wenger and Steve Bould helped coach and develop him, you know, the Steve Bould who wasn’t allowed to do any coaching
Hectors been a hell of a player , and having an excellent season, and long may it continue
https://mundialmag.com/blogs/gazzetta/hector-bellerin-on-wenger-fashion-new-arsenal
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Yes Mandy, for me Hector has been great this season, can’t think of any right back or right wing back playing better
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That’s four matches in nine days, producing three wins and a draw, all under different but challenging circumstances. Very good work by any estimation.
As for the circumstances of this one…. Poor officiating was a major contributor to the difficulty. One can explain the bookings of Mustafi and Guendouzi, in extremis, but the one given Xhaka was a critical transgression. It sent the message to Huddersfield that their rotational fouling would be rewarded.
Although the visitors finished the match with their share of bookings, what they were really after was a disruption of Arsenal’s play. The referee showed by his inexplicable punishment of Xhaka rather than Mooy that he’d help them fulfill their objective.
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It’s interesting that many are saying the Xhaka booking was the most inexplicable, but at the game it was the only one that looked like a dive to me. It seemed like he lost the ball and went down easily to prevent a counter by the opposition, so I was not surprised when the referee gave it, although a booking seemed harsh given what he had previously let go. Mustafi was definitely pushed, but I could not tell from the North Bank whether he made a meal of the contact. I was sitting behind the goal when Guendouzi was tackled – it was not enough contact for a penalty, but neither did it warrant a yellow for a dive, especially given that I was in the same position for the one against Son last week that was given as a penalty and was much more of a dive! I think Matteo’s problem is that he spend too much time getting in the referee’s face during the game, which annoys them and causes them to retaliate at the first opportunity. It was the same thing that caused him to be sent off in the Carabao cup – clearly he has not yet learned the lesson that there is one rule for the opposition and another for anyone in an AFC shirt.
Emery has had a relatively easy run so far, but clearly the establishment is starting to worry that AFC are a threat to their darling spuds and manure finishing in the top 4. So slowly the screws are starting to turn and he is getting a small taste of the tilted playing field Arsene Wenger and his teams ‘enjoyed’ in recent seasons. Let’s just hope the ‘fans’ stay onside and help the team through the inevitable rough patches.
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Mustafi’s chirping at the referee does him no favours, either.
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Cheers Mandy, that was a good read.
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I wonder why we always talk about pgmol officials after every game. Are we really expecting things to change all of a sudden? Wenger is gone so everything should be alright. The only time I think we should talk about them is when they mistakenly favor us. I won’t wait for that either. Let’s just wait for VAR. The FIFA VAR not the nonsense they do in league cup.
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I see Rafa is cursing Deano and demanding the introduction of VAR immediately in this morning’s paper Layks
And did you read the Huddersfield Examiner story about their four injured players in the “physical” encounter at the Emirates !
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Well there’s the thing Andy: any thing which goes against us (or Newcastle, or Huddersfield) is confirmation of bias. I happen to think that much of the time we are on the thin end of favour when it comes to decisions, but there have certainly been times when they have gone our way (the first goal in the still quite recent FA Cup final against Chelsea springs readily to mind). What I do take particular exception to however is one-sided punditry – and all the more so when it comes from those who I might reasonably expect to have a heart that beats Arsenal.
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I think a few things were happening in this game.
First and foremost, we were not at out fluent best, and Huddersfield knew this. They probably also saw the type of refereeing in the Utd game midweek.
This would have led to, or reinforced a tactic of constant small rotational fouls, often off the ball, the same happened at OT , and British refs, presumably in line with guidance from above as opposed to following the rules of the game, are notoriously unable to give out early yellows to nip this in the bud, would say especially against is, although I pay less attention to other teams.
Our players saw what Huddersfield were getting away with, and perhaps went more theatrical over genuine contact, in line with virtually every other team in the league
But it is especially galling to see ours the first team to have three cards for simulation when you see what first and foremost, Spurs, but also Liverpool , City and many others get away with on a weekly basis. It was depressing to be able to predict exactly what Spurs would get away with in the presence of Dean last weekend, where it not for a brilliant comeback, that cheating could have been costly for us.
If Tierney is the ref on a crusade against diving, fair enough, but let’s monitor him.
We won, that’s important, as ever, the officiating is open to interpretation, but it didn’t look even handed to this observer. Genuine mistakes from nervous and fairly new official? Justifiable interpretations from angles? Arsenals run ruffling a few feathers in the establishment and threatening holy of holy clubs? Who knows, the next few weeks will be interesting, let’s see what, if any patterns are emerging.
What ever the case, I do not think refs should be letting players commit 3,4, 5 fouls from the start of the game to disrupt an opponent and I am not sure why they are unless that comes from above, which, sadly, with Mike Riley and all we know about him, would not surprise me.
VAR, might help with some obvious non arguable things, but still very much open to interpretation, as us rugby nuts found out in the recent England vs All Blacks game.
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Oooh dear oh dear Tim – punditry! Now there is a can of most unpleasant worms. The general theme regarding Arsenal at the moment seems to be Unai = good but the players yet to prove they have the mettle to sustain a real bid for the title. Still plentty of teeth sucking and head-shaking about Xhaka, Shkodran etc. They do like Torreira though – subject to him maintaining his fitness and good form I see him on the PFA lists in April.
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And Layks – you can bet whichever type of VAR the PL brings in next August it will be the wrong sort.
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The thing that makes me laugh at managers bemoaning the lack of VAR is the large majority of chairman voted not to have it surely most would have been guided by their managers.
Or do chairman completely ignore the managers
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That was probably my main hope when there was possibility VAR could be delayed further here : managers and perhaps fans (and, occasionally, pundits) making angry impassioned pleas for it whenever their teams lost points in games with big calls against them.
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Torriera, everyone loves Torriera, even the Spurs contingent of my clan are waxing lyrical about him.
Read that Sampdoria had to set up a redirected special Twitter site for all the Arsenal fans tweeting their thanks to the Italian club for him.
He is some player, much to love but none should dismiss the role of those around him who help make him tick, first and foremost, Capt Xhaka
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Do you think those who are waxing at the moment about the big T will be hounding him out if he goes through a lean period? When you start to mull it over, stacks of AFC players are darlings then daemons very quickly. Seems always a bit unhealthy?
Seems way too much pressure on players through the intersweat (if they dare to take a peek at it)?
Too many experts spoil the broth? Its certainly spoilt the AFC matchday show(imo).
I like Unai Emery (you got a friend in me) though, did you see his actions on the touchline as they built up to the goal? For (what seemed) ages he was just pointing towards the goal. “go that way young man until you find the treasure!” None of the players could have seen him as their backs were turned form him, but it was still a big motion from him. Man that guy loves it like us when a goal is scored.
Sure hope it works out for him for many years.
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take your mind off the corrupt PGMOL, the silly pundits and the divers and cheats by having a listen to my latest Yorkie Show, where the music is somewhere between Rock and a Hard place, with a little geography lesson somehow thrown in too, you will have to listen to find out how.
https://www.spreaker.com/user/cavanonlineradio/the-yorkie-show-10th-december-2018
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I am sure he will make mistakes in time but I am very much enjoying our new keeper, who seems to be going about his business with a minimum of fuss – and gives the appearence of communicating pretty well with those immediately in front of him. And thanks for the show, Ed: good stuff.
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I’m not sure if the fans will turn on Lucas Dave although we have a fickle bunch and always on the look out for a new victim. He has the considerable advantage of being small, and small players, feisty little terriers with the fight in ’em and a smile on their face, are generally taken to the crowds’ heart. Think Santi, think Jack. He did not come with a big price tag or any great claims about his weekly wage which also reduces his profile for potential abuse.
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Lets hope not! Good points though anicoll5, I didnt mean for it to come across as being pessimistic( although Im sure it is), but the last years were a real drag with the wobs and the way they knocked people down (prob better to not keep going over it on my part!)…
But its great to see the fight and scrapping qualities the T has— as you mentioned, seems to love playing for the Arsenal. Im sure Barca have got their greedy beady on him already!
I also am with Foreverheady and really like Leno. Pulls off some great saves.
I hope Mesuts back soon, and Mr Ramsey too. The idea of no Rambo at AFC is a weird one, sure hope he stays.
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ha ha ha, they make it up as the go along, here is Dermot Gallagher’s explanation as to why Lacazette’s goal was rightly ruled out on Saturday (but you must remember that the same Dermot Gallagher said that the Mane goal v AFC should have stood as despite him being offside in the build up he can not be ruled offside as he did not touch the ball at that point, and can only be called if he touches it in first phase, once second phase starts being offside in first phase does not matter) “It is the right decision because when the ball is flicked on by Aubameyang, Lacazette is offside,” he told Sky Sports .
“He then impacts on the defender because he starts in an offside position and assistant Simon Becker has waited because if Lacazette gets onto the ball, he will flag.
“But Lacazette then moves to an onside position and as soon as he does that, he realises he hasn’t been flagged and then goes towards the defender which impacts on his ability to play that ball.
“It’s at that point that the assistant flags.”
I have said it many times, VAR will make no difference to AFC, they will contort the rules to suit themselves and media will agree with them
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Fair enough then – if VAR won’t make any difference then there is no point in having it. Job done.
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I hope that Torreira and Guendouzi are locked into cast iron contracts – the quality of our acquisition team and MD is how well they protect our assets.
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