Category Archives: Arsenal

Arsenal strengthen position at top of table despite not playing

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Morning all, and another round of Thursday night football. Although is 6pm more late afternoon?

Bit of a nightmare kick off for most today.

With most working 9-5 or 9-5.30, it means many of us will be having to duck out early from work, or arrive late for the game.

I would not be surprised if the Emirates is half empty at kick off as fans commute in from their jobs, and as the game goes on it fills up.

It will also be a nightmare outside the ground today as fans do not logistically have the 2 hours prior to kick off to enter, and more than usual with arrive with bags.

Having it at 6pm (so that the game does not clash with the evening Premier League games) once again shows it is more important to “maximise TV viewiership” than do what is in the interest of fans that go in, week in, week out.

The mid-week Premier League fixtures have fallen favourable for us. We remain top without even playing.

Chelsea drew away to Brentford whilst Tottenham lost away to Manchester United.

For many of our rivals, yesterday was their “game in hand” on us.

This round of games now mean that Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool have played 10 games. Newcastle and Tottenham have played 11.

We are top of the league and rightly so!

On Tottenham, Antonio Conte is turning them into a traditional Italian team.

Five at the back
Three defensive minded midfielders
Hoof it up to the big lad in the hope the smaller quick lad gets onto it

They might be having their best start in their history, but it is really turgid football, and once the results start falling away the fans will turn.

Onto tonight.

We win and we are in the next round of the Europa League, and one foot in the last 16.

Expect a fairly strong team due to this.

On a personal note, a year ago today I was made redundant from a job I had “loved” for 15 years. Since then I have gone onto bigger and better things (as well walked away with a nice redundancy package!).

It has taught me to value myself more.

Anyone going through the same thing, do not worry, do not be fearful of the future.

There are so many opportunities out there and if your current company do not value you, someone else will. And probably pay you a lot more for the same job.

Enjoy the game tonight.

Keenos

NINE contentious VAR decision’s in Arsenal’s last 3 games – how many were correct?

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Happy Wednesday!

Whilst the Premier League is having a mid-week game week, we are sitting on our thumbs waiting for a Europa League game tomorrow.

The home tie against PSV was cancelled due to “policing issues” following the Queens death. The re-arranged fixture postponed the Manchester City match that we were supposed to play this week.

Have any PSV or Manchester City fan been compensated? Probably not. Shows once again that the authorities do not care about those fans that spend their hard earned cash following their team over land and sea.

Over the last 10 days there has been a lot of talk about how Arsenal are getting the “rub of the green from VAR”.

Even when commentators are agreeing with the decision that the refereeing team come to, they are still saying “Arsenal got lucky there”.

But are Arsenal getting the rub of the green? Or is this it just the onfield officials and VAR working together to come to the right decisions? Let’s investigate:

Emerson Royal red card
Onfield decision: Red card
VAR decision: Red card
Notes: Emerson was late, from behind, scrapping down Gabriel Martinelli’s Achilles. These sort of challenges need to be red cards. They can no only be a red when it leads to a broken ankle.
Correct decision

Saka offside
Onfield decision: No offside
VAR: No offside
Notes: Technology could not conclusively overule the onfield decision, so it was correct they stayed with the linos decision.
Correct decision

Gabriel Martinelli challenge on Trent
Onfield decision: No foul
VAR decision: No foul
Notes: It was not a tackle. Trent attempted to block Gabriel’s cross and got caught by the Brazilian’s foot during the natural motion of him kicking the ball.
Correct decision

Gabriel Jesus penalty
Onfield decision: Penalty
VAR decision: Penalty
Notes: Challenge on Jesus came in from behind, with Thiago Alcantara kicking him in the leg. Alcantara was no-where near the ball. Just because a challenge is not enough for a player to “naturally” go down, does not mean it is not a foul. Often players in this situation have to go down highlight the contact others the referee will never give it.
Correct decision

Gabriel handball
Onfield decision: No penalty
VAR decision: No penalty
Notes: As soon as the ball comes off Gabriel’s chest, it can not be given as handball. Had the referee given the penalty, VAR would have overturned due to it rolling off the Brazilian’s chest.
Correct decision

Bamford goal dissalowed
Onfield decision: No goal
VAR decision: No goal
Notes: Clear push by Patrick Bamford
Correct decision

William Saliba handball
Onfield decision: No penalty
VAR decision: Penalty
Notes: Was a handball by Saliba. Questions can be asked about the offside in the build up, but that led to a cross which Arsenal cleared and started a “new phase of play”.
Correct decision

Leeds non-penalty
Onfield decision: Penalty
VAR: No penalty
Notes: Patrick Bamford clearly fouls Gabriel prior to the coming together between the two. The coming together was 6 of 1, half a dozen of the other.
Correct decision

Gabriel red card
Onfield decision: Red card
VAR decision: No red card
Notes: Lino advised referee that Gabriel had kicked out Bamford and a red card should be issued. On review it was clear that Gabriel did not kick out. Red card reduced to yellow card.
Correct decision

So of the 9 contentious decisions we have seen across the last 3 games, the joint decision making of VAR and the onfield officials came to the correct decision every time.

Of the 3 occasions VAR overturned the onfield decision, 1 went against Arsenal and 2 for. The 2 that went for Arsenal were part of the same incident and it was the linesman’s decision making that was overturned, not the referee.

Just because decision’s go your way, does not mean you are “lucky” if all those decisions are actually correct.

You could also argue that one of the biggest errors in the last 3 games went against Arsenal.

The linesman should have flagged for the Leeds players being offside in the build-up to their penalty.

This is the disadvantage of “keeping the flag down” as it means that if a new phase starts, the decision not to flag “in case a goal is scored” is not reviewed.

Leeds gained an advantage due to the offside.

The Leeds player was free to cross the ball in, unchallenged. Arsenal were then at full stretch trying to clear and the ball went straight back to him. 2 passes later and the cross went in which led to the penalty.

If VAR did not exist, the linesman would have flagged for the offside. It was a clear and obvious. Ne need to keep the flag down “just in case”.

My final thought is those that are saying VAR is winning us games; with no VAR the first Leeds penalty would not have been given and the second would have been given. What do they say about bad decisions equaling themselves out?

Casting our minds back to our only loss of the season – Manchester United away – and we will all remember that VAR ruled out our “opener”. So we could easily argue that VAR is costing us games rather than winning.

Tomorrow it is PSV at home. Remember if you are not going, sell the ticket on the TX. Give someone else a chance to go.

UTA

Keenos


Arsenal Escape to Victory

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Sunday was probably the worst we have played this season.

I always fear the away games after a European trip – it can not be underestimated how much a near 6 hour flight can take out of professional footballers.

It is likely that the team would have taken a flight home straight after the game on Thursday night, arriving back into London for breakfast. I would imagine they would have gone straight to London Colney for a stretching session.

Whilst the Arsenal players would have travelled in luxury, 5 hours sleep on a plan is no substitute for 8-10 hours of sleep in your own bed.

Meanwhile, Leeds United would have had a nice week preparing their game-plan for the arrival of The Arsenal.

Now this is not an excuse. It is part and parcel of the game, and competing in Europe.

Some will argue that the side we put out against Bodo/Glimt was too strong. That we should have left more at home.

But we escaped from the Arctic Circle with a 1-0 win which has all but guaranteed us a place in the next round of Europe.

As we discussed last week, it is also important to top the group.

Finish second, you have to play an extra 2 fixtures in February against those Champions League drop-outs. Win your group and you are straight into the last 16 and can put Europe on the back burner until March.

We have seen performances like Sunday often over the years – and not just Arsenal.

If you play that Thursday night and have not put the game to bed by the 60th minute, fatigue does kick in. And that is what happened.

Leeds came out for the second half hungrier, more intense then Arsenal and it felt like it was only a matter of time until the equaliser came.

Before the penalty – which was a penalty – we had escaped a Leeds goal being ruled out and them ripping us open at will.

Patrick Bamford ended up missing the penalty but with 20 minutes to go it was still all to play for.

In the end, we held on for 3 points. And that is what title challengers do.

Go away from home, after a long mid-week European away trip, play poorly against a fired up opponent, and escape with 3 points.

A few things to note which we might expand on more if I get the time this week.

Bukayo Saka is back, although he never really went away.

We blogged in September that he was playing well, he just was not scoring goals.

Four goals in his last 3 games takes him to 5 goals and 4 assists for Arsenal this season. No player in red and white has scored or assisted more.

It probably shows the high standard he has set himself that some naysayers kept telling us he was having a bad season.

At the other end of the pitch, William Saliba had a tough game.

The way he plays will lead him to look lackadaisical on the ball at the time. In turn that will mean when he does make an error questions will be asked.

He reminds me a lot of a young Rio Ferdinand.

At West Ham, the game often looked too easy for Ferdinand.

He was strong, quick, great in the tackle and had fantastic ability on the ball. This led him to get a bit of crticisim in his early years for his languid style of play. For trying to play out too often.

Ferdinand became one of the best (if not for a while the best) central defenders in world football.

Saliba is following a similar path.

I can handle the odd bad game, odd mistake, as a 21-year-old knowing the play he will become.

Sunday was probably a little reality check for his fan boys who already act like he is the finished article.

Final thought, the game being delayed due to issues with the referee’s communication system is disgraceful.

There is a reason why lino’s have flags, why refs have designated hand signals.

In the past when technology has failed in other sports, the game just continues without it. Football needs to implement a similar rule.

The game can not be held up for an hour just because someone has kicked out a plug. It is not far on away fans.

Some might point out that VAR gave Leeds’s penalty, which shows it was worth the wait.

But without VAR – which leads to linos keeping their flag down – Arsenal would have been awarded a free kick for offside in the build-up.

Onwards the Arsenal train goes. PSV on Thursday. Win that and progression in the Europa League will be secure – and with Zurich (nil pois) at home in the final game, top place will basically be secured.

Enjoy your Tuesday.

Keenos