Well hello everyone, what a kerfuffle eh?
Let’s get right to it then, what a load of old officiating bollocks that was. Normally when I see a bad decision I get mad, then I get over it, but this one? Oh no, the more I see the incident the more my blood pressure rises. It can’t be in the spirt of the game to give a 2nd yellow card for that. The Brighton player carried the ball yards from where the free kick should have been being taken, then rolled the ball at Rice, Declan felt the ball hit the back of his leg, looked at it and touched it away. He was then instantly and unceremoniously booted really hard to the leg. Now, the Brighton player couldn’t have been trying to take a quick free kick because the ball was moving, as well as it being in the wrong spot. That the Referee rewarded his housery by rewarding him and his team is stupidity of the first order.
Twitter is awash with indignant Arsenal fans claiming corruption, and incidents like this are enough to make me go and stand alongside the baying mob nodding and jeering with them. The whole idea of that Rice was time wasting is ridiculous and preposterous.
This is supposed to be a match report, but truthfully, that incident was the match. I raises question about fairness, corruption and makes me wonder if spending the emotional energy of supporting is even worthwhile.
Ok, ok, ok, for the first 50 minutes we were the better team, we had scored a really good goal where Saka and Havertz had combined wonderfully and it was looking like a routine home win. We weren’t spectacular or dynamic, but we were good enough.
I suppose, a draw was therefore a good result in the end, because Brighton are one of the last teams you want to be playing with a man down for some 40 odd minutes. So I’ll leave it at that without even mentioning the bad defending that lead to is conceding an equaliser because that moment was surrounded by some stoic performances by the entire team.
I’ll tell you what though, I can’t imagine how Mikel must be feeling, given what he puts into trying to get results, compared to just a fan like me, and I feel crap.
Oh, and to top it all, we will now have Rice missing when we play next, and that’s Spurs. Grrrrr.
Pedantic George
Positively Arsenal 
Good post.
Succinct and straight to the point, humerous but underlays with the serious point/truth “we were ffing cheated” yet again!
Hopefully the injustice will fuel the players even more going forward. I don’t know if anybody else noticed in post match interviews with mikel, saka and rice, but they seemed even more gloomy and down than normal in these type of intances. It was almost as if they were sapped of energy because of the disbelief of that outrageous decision. I am not normally a conspiracist, and I am sure they aren’t either, but you could feel from all 3 the message “what the fuck can we do against that, we can’t fucking win against officiating like this”
Fair play to all 3 of them for controlling their emotions and anger and their professionalism (especially mikel)because they would have been escorting me (and I am a peaceful old hippy!) out of the emirates and driving me off in a police van!
Up the Arsenal.
Flashman71
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Morning George. I feel the same, in that strange way that misery likes company I was glad of your review, I didn’t feel alone in my frustration, and for once I also agreed with aftv etc!
Anyone remember some seasons ago, when they were trying to get rid of player grabbing each other at corners and sent of Kos? A few weeks in and that ‘letter of the law’ was soon forgotten. As it was when Brighton Pedro booted the ball away.
We do seem to have a strange history of oddball sendings offs; Martinelli, Tomi, Xhaka etc.
I thought we seemed a bit headless for a while after the red but once we’d worked out a bit of a diamond shape we started to look a threat again, and on another day we might have won the game?
Against them Spuds I expect Jorginho to step up, and he will try to win back a place. Perhaps the indignity of the card incident, and the poor defending for their goal will be a rallying point?
Lovely goal from Havertz though!
Thanks for the review.
COYG!
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the second booking for Rice was not one of those “Ref had no real choice but to give the yellow” incidents, it was one of those very PGMOL Arsenal yellow cards, you know the type, “the Ref was looking to give it”, I ask why would a Ref from Manchester be looking for a reason to book an Arsenal player, answers can be written on the back of a stamp
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Reminded me of the joke Xhaka card at the start of the season some years back.
No one in the entire history of the game has had a direct red card for clipping heels on a break away before or since Xhaka.
Still vexs me to this day and this one to Rice is a piss take.
Ball was rolling, free kick was not from the correct spot, rice was walking away, the guy rolled it into rices feet and then booted him.
How he only seen Rice as the problem was annoying and he could not wait to get his card out.
At least we didn’t lose the game.
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Apart from all of the different points everyone has highlighted, I have just seen the replay again and actually Veltman plays the ball with his feet and when it first rolled it into Rice’s heels. Therefore the ball was in play and Rice was allowed to play it and so the correct decision would be a throw(if not then obviously the replayed free kick from the right place and stationary).
Danny Welbeck running to the ref brandishing an imaginary card was also a booking as is Veltman deliberately attempting to kick the ball at Rice to try and get him booked as there was no attempted pass available.
The fact that the ball was in play and Veltman missed the ball and hoofed Rice up in the air meant it was a straight red for dangerous play or a straight red for retaliation.
The more everyone is looking at this incident the more reasons for it being wrong.
Now we all know refs sometimes get things wrong but VAR got it wrong, Mike Dean got it wrong, Dermot Gallagher got it wrong and judging by the silence from pigmol and lack of apology they have got it wrong as well.
Can right thinking logical people really believe all these officials could really all get it wrong, especially with the amount of time they have had, or is it more reasonable to believe they are corrupt.
In most footballing countries there has been corruption of some kind, so why not in the place where there is the most money to pay for it.
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It seemed quite a tilted pitch from the start but then it often does. Easier said than done but unless we are able to convert early pressure into goals then we will remain vulnerable to any idiosyncrasies the ref chooses to indulge in. I think we need to be a lot sharper and a lot more determined to score goals rather than hoping they will arrive gift-wrapped as a reward for pretty and intricate play.
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New post is up
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