Good day you wonderful positive gooners.
Next time some miserable git declares “only winning matters” remind them about the feeling we had a getting a mere draw. We beat United at home, but let me tell you this point away at Chelsea felt much much better to me.
The game started with Chelsea slightly on top, they were energetic and quite fluent. We appeared to have the intention to attack down the flanks, this was evident from Ozil’s positioning out wide. Him being wide did leave Xhaka and Torreira outnumbered in midfield, It was a tactic that may or may not have worked, but we will never know because about 25 minutes in, disaster struck.
Mustafi, who up until that point had look as nervous as a kitten on the ball, played a horrendously under hit ball to Leno, who seems a bit slow off the mark to me, Luiz tried to get back ,made the foul and got his marching orders. There has been a big discussion on social media as to whether or not it should have been yellow or red, I think it could have been interpreted as a yellow, but was probably a red. At this point I was about to tweet “that’s that then” but thought better of it, lucky old me? What followed the dispatching of the resulting penalty was about 70 minutes of football that made me proud of Arteta and every player involved, it was a magnificent effort.
Every single player stepped up to the mark, the effort an bravery was clear for all to see, What impressed me most was that although we sat deeper, that did not in any way mean that when we had the ball we didn’t try to both keep it and attack with a passion.
Soon after the sending off Arteta had Rob Holding stripped and ready to go, but he was not introduced at this stage. Odd? I though as this would be the stock response of more coaches. What was going on? Xhaka had dropped into centerback and stayed there for the entire game, he was , by the way, magnificent, an absolute warrior and played fantastic to boot. Arteta has since explained his decision.
“on whether he was thinking of bringing off Martinelli for Holding…
Not Martinelli, but I did change my mind. I was thinking about that and I said, ‘I don’t want to send that message to the team’. We decided to keep it as we were and give them a chance. I wanted to see how they could respond to that. I didn’t want to make the response for them because I want them to be accountable for what they do and I didn’t want to make a decision so they wouldn’t decide for themselves. It’s a great response from them”
I can’t stress how brave a decision this was for Mikel, had it gone wrong the media and many fans would have rounded on him, because that’s not what they would have done, but that is what makes some managers special.
Last night I said this on twitter
“Some credit” is an understatement, I can’t imagine how low he must have been, but he fought like a gladiator.
No need for me to describe the goals, Martinelli, with the assistance of Kante, showed speed and composure that is incredible for such a young man and Hector surprised the world with a left foot shot that will be remembered long after his career is over.
That was as good a point as I can remember us winning.
Positively Arsenal 
I did not watch the match and have not seen highlights other than Martinelli’s goal, which was magnificent.
I applaud the grit and determination of the players to stick with it through thick and thin and to earn a draw after what seemed to be a hopeless situation.
However, what concerns me is what seems to be our inability to create chances, let alone take them.
The 27 minutes before the sending off, we had no shot on target or off-target and for the next 73 minutes, even being a player down, managed only two shots on target and none off-target. Those are remarkable statistics for a team that is supposed to have an attacking bent to it.
I am assuming that Arteta is concentrating on the defence but even so we still seem to be leaking goals.
I sincerely hope that Arteta and his colleagues will be able to find a solution to this problem.
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Good summary. Credit is due to each and every player on that pitch last night.
I liked seeing Laca consoling Mustafi in an encouraging way on the pitch at the end of the game. That is precisely what is needed.
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Watched the foul by Luiz. Barely even a foul if you ask me but maybe I’ve seen too much of Arsenal not getting fouls they deserve. Yellow would be harsh. Red frankly ridiculous.
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chkmiaot it was a red cos he did not attempt to play the ball, he shoved the forward, under the rules it had to be red as he did not attempt to play the ball, it has to be considered a genuine attempt to play the ball. He should have let the guy shoot as Mustafi was back on the line
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Bellerin’s goal was very similar to one he scored v Liverpool a few years ago
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it seems frank lampard said after the game that Mesut ozil caused CFC the most problems, with his positioning out wide and then when we were down to ten, when he moved to CM.
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Eduardo from the rear it looks that way. But to me from the from he lunges for the ball with his right leg and bumps into Abraham. A foul? Yes. Yellow? Possibly but I don’t think so. Red? Surely not. He is not even the last man. Nothing dangerous about the foul either.
I guess it’s one of those divisive points though considering many commentators also are not sure whether it was right to send him off or not.
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I agree with you about letting him shoot though.
Abraham was going away from goal. Luis should have probably stayed up and tried pushing him further and lunging in only to try and block the shot.
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Mustafa is a great defender 99% of the time however his few mistakes are usually big ones and are always punished. I have seen many defenders worse than him get away with slot more. You have to admire his conolies though his fightback was brilliant and even though some of his balls out of defence were cut out he kept looking forward and played a few delightful passes. I think we need to remember the reason he had so much of the ball early on was chelski wanted him to have it and were cutting off the midfielders and Luiz.
Xhaka was fantastic and any other midfielder in the league going into CB and playing that well would have been absolutely lauded by the media but they were very quiet.
I know it’s been discussed on here before but I thought the double jeopardy rule had been brought in to stop ruining games when it come to penalties has it been reversed?
We still have to look at how we were so outclassed in the early stages and how easily they were playing the ball around us. The fightback was fantastic but eleven against eleven was worrying.
chelskis second goal was dodgy as well with Abrahams coming back on to field so close to Leno and on the side the ball came from it had to be interfering with play.
The main thing about this game is with everything against us we showed the resolve and skill to come out with a result something that should provide a platform for all the players and fans to go for bigger things.
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under the red card rule on cases like this, having other defender behind him don’t count, the danger of the foul don’t count either, its all down to if the ref thinks its not a genuine attempt to play the ball, then its a red, its a yellow if the ref thinks the player did really attempt to play the ball
I think the ref adjudged him to have pushed the forward, so not an attempt to play the ball
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Arsenal are interested in Shakhtar Donetsk’s 23yo CB), Mykola Matviyenko. so says his agent, Yuriy Danchenko
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I’ve lost a comment
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It was in the spam bin Ian, no idea why.
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reports in Spain that Dani Ceballos has asked for his loan at Arsenal to be ended so he can join another team where he can get more game time.
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After Wednesday’s PL results, just four points separate fifth place from 14th. Could change if Wolves beat Liverpool tomorrow.
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with Burnley beating Man UTd at old trafford there is now only 4pts between utd in 5th and 14th placed Newcastle
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sorry 900thgooner did not see your post till mine went up.
Arsenal one of 5 teams on 30pts
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Funny one with that denial of clear goalscoring opportunity is that there are surely loads of cases where it applies and no one would dream of red. Shirt pulls or grabs to stop player getting on end of cross for instance, especially at set pieces.
Anyway, what’s done is done. That’s me probably doomed to thinking about it from hereon in where laws aren’t applied that way, though, as with that Xhaka red from old mossy boy vs Swansea.
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having watched the highlights of the midweek games on BBC last night all I can say is that Arsenal are most certainly Reffed differently than most other teams. There was two similar if not worse penalty fouls (as in no attempt to play the ball) than David Luiz’s one v CFC, but neither got reds, and not only that the commentators and pundits did not even seem to consider that they should be Reds. Tyrone Mings committed a foul that if any Arsenal player committed it would have been a straight Red for violent conduct, he got a yellow, again no calls by the commentators or pundits for it to be Red, he also then went on to commit a hand ball offense that did not earn him a second yellow, he by the way scored the winner late on.
there were several other incidents that just had me shaking my head and saying how different these games are reffed to the Arsenal games.
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Liverpool are annoying, but also quite amazing, they certainly get the rub of the green, but no matter how many games they play, sometimes, not even playing that well, nothing ever seems to catch up with them, they can keep up the tempo right until the end, quite a few late winners this season. God only knows why they have to pinch our medics!
Up to us, City, or maybe someone unexpected to honour the Invincibles.
The thought of Liverpool winning the league, and their massed of gloating pundits, including the spitter sickens me. Fergie could bully the media, like he did the refs, but the media wankfest that will result from this season will eclipse anything Utd received.
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May be the first time I’ve ever said something not negative about football agent but Wolves have certainly benefitted from their Mendes relationship. Pretty sure Moutinho, Patricio, Neves, Jota, Jonny, Boly, Jiminez are him, and may have been in on Traore and Dendonker too.
Maybe key to it is that he is involved on a very deep level with club, well beyond his normal one when forms his special relationships. Amusing to think most of those came while Mou was at Utd, and at least three of them- Neves, Jimenez, Moutinho- would have helped Utd a lot.
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Liverpool have benefitted by the fact that they have had no serious injuries all season.
I think it is an important factor in a team winning the EPL in that they are able to field a settled team for all or most of the season.
IF Van Dijk, Salah and Alexander were all out for 6 months at the same time, I doubt if they would be as successful.
Maybe they have also become the PGML’s teacher’s pet and can do virtually anything and get away with it.
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Their dietician clearly knows a thing or two, amazing fitness levels.
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Thought my thinking that the front three, with too much threat for any defence to handle properly, are the key for Liverpool and that they lose way more than a third if one is missing was being proven last night with way 2nd half went, but I guess the remaining two getting 3 great chances and scoring winner with one of them goes against it.
Not ready to give up on that belief just yet though. Even more important though, surely, is that man Van Dijk. They looked completely different defensively in that club World Cup semi. Whole picture was altered with Robinson in particular looking exposed.
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Look away those who find my pgmol moaning too much, but did anyone notice how amenable officials were when Mane got injured. Did the norm of going down to allow sub to get ready, not rushed by officials at any point and pretty sure they waited some time after he’d left pitch before sub came on.
Swear I’ve seen it play out differently with us a few times in recent past, with them hustling us to get player off quickly and restarting before sub comes on.
Sort of thing there should obviously be the one policy for, implemented same way each time. This was on back of Tierney being mighty zealous trying to get Pepe off field other night when subbed.
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Mikel Arteta was back in front of the media on Friday as he looked ahead to our Emirates FA Cup fourth-round clash any Bournemouth.
Our head coach was asked about a range of subjects, and you can see what he said in our full transcript below:
on what he’s learned about his players from the Chelsea game…
The type of players that I have at the moment, with the attitude that they showed, the ability to react in difficult moments and I think the joy was to watch, from my side, how much they want it and actually that they never gave up.
on it being a month since his first game which was also Bournemouth away…
A lot of things that I wanted to implement, not just towards the players but around the club, in terms of the culture, I’m seeing very good signs in progress. A lot of things about our way of playing and our style as well, even though the circumstances in some of the games have made it a little bit more difficult than expected. But in general, I can see the direction towards what I wanted a month ago.
on reports linking us with Mykola Matvienko…
I don’t know. I’m not going to be discussing any transfer links publicly. It’s something that we are trying to do internally and when we have news we will communicate with you guys.
on whether we are still looking to sign a defender this month…
We’ve been looking at different positions. Obviously, since I joined we lost Calum and we had other circumstances and injuries in those positions so it’s true that at the back we’ve been short. But there are other positions as well, depending on what happens in the market, that we might need to assess.
on if he’s hopeful that we will do some business before the deadline…
At the moment, I am 50:50 because this transfer window is very, very complicated. I only want to bring somebody in if I’m really convinced that he can really improve the level that we have.
on whether Dani Ceballos will be returning to Spain…
I had a conversation with Dani. When I joined the club he wasn’t here, he was in Madrid because he was doing his rehab – for over a month – in Madrid with the team that owns him. And then, when I came here, he was doing his rehab and by the first two or three weeks he was getting back to fitness and I haven’t seen much of him because he’s only trained with us for a week or 10 days, you know. So it’s very early to assess what I can or cannot do with him. I heard about all those things but I have nothing to comment.
on whether Ceballos will remain part of his plans…
He needs to get back to fitness and fight for his place like any other team. After that we will make the selection that I think is fair with what I see on the pitch.
on Aubameyang reportedly agreeing a deal with Barcelona…
As far as I know, a week ago after a game at home we were discussing that he said he was so happy and he didn’t agree with the things that were written in the media and he has his future here. That’s what I understand at the moment.
on whether the FA Cup is a good way to get the fans back on side…
When Rob was asking me about the things that we’ve done in this month, I think that one of the important things is creating that connection again with the fans. It’s a long time ago and these people have been here for a long time that we haven’t seen the fans react and support the team how they did against Chelsea. It was incredible and in some stages it was like we were playing at home. The amount of support they gave was incredible in difficult circumstances and I’m so proud that they’re feeling a little bit closer to the team now.
on where the FA Cup stands in his list of priorities…
We’re going to fight for every competition that we’re involved in. I know what it means to this club to win that competition and we need to get back winning. We need to get back to being up there and having everybody talking about us. We need every competition to try and do that.
on whether Bournemouth will be distracted by their troubles in the Premier League…
I think after winning a game the manager will want some continuity and he will want to build on that, to build some momentum and give confidence to the team. I’m not expecting them to be relaxed.
on Sokratis returning and whether he will give some youngsters minutes…
In the next two or three days we will assess the training sessions and see how everybody is. I will try to pick the best possible team to win the game.
Copyright 2020 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.
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