Death and taxes. We can now add to that list:
Harry Kane scoring a penalty at the Emirates
Harry Kane finishing league top scorer
Harry Kane failing to win a trophy
I am not sure why drawing at home to Bayern Munich in the Champions League led to so much negativity towards Arsenal.
We now live in a world of extremes. You can not suffer a defeat (or draw even!) without people making over-the-top comments such as “Arsenal bottled it.”
The bottled it is a boring narrative often rolled out by opposing fans who have never seen their team win a trophy, and Arsenal fans who just hate Mikel Arteta for some weird reason. It is used by the sort of fan that type things such as “assnal” or “totnum”.
Grow up lads and learn to actually have a real opinion on the game rather than just looking to troll and / or be driven by impressions. What is crazy is this sort of talk is not even done by kids who do not know better. I see adults using the terminology.
I guess age ain’t nothing but a number and whilst someone might be in their 40s, their lack of intelligence means they have more in common with a 14-year-old, and that comes across online.
Back in the 90s, if these adults were speaking to kids at the park, they would be called out for what they are. But the current era with social media brings children closer to their mentally deficient predators and no one batters an eyelid!
Anyway, back to Arsenal.
A 2-2 draw in the Champions League is not a bad result, especially since they removed the away goal rule.
The removal of this rule is why we now see much more attacking football in the Champions League (10-goals in the first two games). Home teams can now play more expansive without having to worry too much about the huge disadvantage of conceding the away goal.
Unlike previous Champions League seasons when we have given ourselves a mountain to climb, we are in the tie and that is what your aim is after the first leg.
Harry Kane got his usual goal from the penalty spot. The goal was his 6th at the Emirates, with 5 coming from the penalty spot.
Many of those penalties were soft ones (for fouls on wobbly Son – only takes a gust of wind to blow him over!). If referees were as keen to give Arsenal a penalty at the Emirates as they were Kane, then the Swedish official would have blown up for the blatant foul on Bukayo Saka in those closing minutes.
Manuel Neuer made no attempt to play the ball and absolutely clattered Saka. As has been said elsewhere, Kane going down like that in the Allianz and it would be a stonewall penalty.
Considering how quick the ref was to blow his whistle throughout the game, and give any contact as a free kick, tt just shows that European refs are as inconsistent as English ones.
As for Thomas Tuchel claiming that Munich should have had a second penalty, it clearly was not one.
Whilst the ref had blown his whistle to restart play, David Raya was clearly passing the ball to Gabriel so that he could take the goal kick. It was not handball.
If we start calling this for handball, then everytime a player throws the ball underarm to a teammate so that they can take a throw on, it should be called for a foul throw. People do not seem to understand that whilst the rules are on paper, they allow for ingame infringements like this where a team has clearly not restarted play.
With the hoo-har around it though, Raya and Gabriel will need to be careful in the future. You can see a ref looking to make a name for himself calling it as a penalty. A bit like when Jonny Bairstow was given out last summer.
To crush the situation, we should speak to the PGMOL for clarification. If they say that they deem the goal kick to be taken, then Raya will need to roll it to Gabriel. If they wouldn’t deem it to be taken, then that message will be sent to every English ref and VAR and the directive will be that the goal kick is not deemed as being taken.
We are top of the league, in the Champions League quarter final and just drew 2-2 with Bayern Munich. I am not sure how the narrative is currently being written so negatively.
Onto the next one…
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 