Tag Archives: Arsène Wenger

Arsenal are poor; but refereeing standard is poorer

5 Replies

Before I start this blog, I just want to clarify, a referee is not the reason you do not win the game. You should be winning games based on your own ability. But referees can contribute if they make errors that led directly to goals either being scored or disallowed.

Arsene Wenger complained recently about the standard of referring had declined in the Premier League this season.

Had he actually aired his true complaint, that Arsenal have been on the end of some match changing decision, he would have been shot down for finding excuses in to why his team did not win. But the fact is this season, in every game we have dropped points bar the Liverpool & Chelsea games, we have had poor referring decisions go against us at key times.

Stoke 1 – 0 Arsenal

With 18 minutes remaining, Alexandre Lacazette latched onto Olivier Giroud’s flick and lashed an instant left-footed volley past Jack Butland. The goal was incorrectly ruled out for offside.

Hactor Bellerin was also denied a penalty when he was blatently fouled in the box.

Watford 2 – 1 Arsenal

1-0 up and cruising, Brazilian midfielder Richarlison dives for a penalty. Given. Goal. 1-1

In the build up to the winner, Troy Deeney was in an offside position and active in the play.

Manchester City – 2 – 1 Arsenal

Arsenal had just got a goal back and were on top, pressing for an equaliser. Both Gabriel Jesus and David Silva were offside for the third goal

Arsenal 1 – 3 Manchester United

At 3-1, Arsenal were 2 stonewall penalties against 10 man Manchester United.

The first was Danny Welbeck was caught by the sliding Chris Smalling in the box but Andre Marriner waved away the Arsenal appeals for a penalty. The second when Matteo Darmian bought down Welbeck, in the area.

Southampton 1 – 1 Arsenal

Alexandre Lacazette was wiped out during the 1-1 draw at Southampton. The score was 1-0 to Southampton at the time.

West Ham 0 – 0 Arsenal

A 0-0 draw could have been lit up be a brilliant piece of acrobatic skill by Olivier Giroud. Instead of the ball hitting the back of the net, it was stopped by the hand of Aaron Cresswell.

Now I am not complaining as these incidents happen, and we should be beating the likes of Stoke, Watford and West Ham without them. But they were all key incidents at important times of the game.

I also agree that in the game against WBA, the Baggies should have had a penalty.

It is not just these decisions went against us causing us to love the game, it is also the butterfly effect that they create.

Had the referee got the decisions right against Stoke and Watford, we would have gone into the Manchester City trip with a record of 1 defeat in the opening 10 games. The mentality of the side would have been much more positive.

Had the right decisions been given in our last 3 games – Man U, Southampton & West Ham, as well as that Watford game – we would be seeing us having won 1 of the last12.

The negative spiral the club is currently in, the anger of the fans, would have not been created if referees only got the decisions right.

People will say it evens itself out, but it simply does not. Arsenal are losing points due to referring decisions.

Keenos

Are Arsenal actually in the middle of a glory period?

9 Replies

In researching for responses to yesterdays blog on how things at Arsenal are actually not as bad as what they seem, I ended up asking myself a question:

Are Arsenal actually in the middle of a glory period?

Now before you spit your tea out all over your monitor, hear me out.

Arsenal have won 3 FA Cups in 4 years. That is 3 trophies, 3 bits of silverware. Now some of you will already be saying the FA Cup is not enough. Well done for being brainwashed by Sky and UEFA to think that the only thing that matters is the Premier League and the Champions League.

I remember the days of the 90s, when we won the domestic cup double and then the European Cup Winners Cup in 1994. I could not tell you where we finished those years.

3 trophies in 4 years is a success, especially when you factor in that Arsenal’s hit rate since 1900 is just under a trophy every 4 years (give or take a bit of time for the World Wars). Interestingly, prior to 1996, it was a trophy every 5 years. So 3 trophies in 4 years is clearly well above our going rate.

Now I looked into it further, to try and establish what our most successful periods in our history are, and how does the current period compare:

What is clearly missing from the current successful period is a league title, but what is clear is when you look at the bigger picture, that over the 125+ year history of the club, we are in one of most successful eras. Don’t believe me?

Despite our reported demise, only 4 previous era’s have shown a better years per trophy period than the era we are currently in.

The above 5 eras span 37 years between them. That means that outside of these eras, we have had nearly 90 years of either no success, or just the single trophy.

Whilst we might all be a little bit despondent about the current era, history will show it in a good light, that we are in one of the more glorious eras of our history.

Embrace the success.

Keenos

Are things at Arsenal as disastrous as some are making out?

9 Replies

I always think sometimes it is worthwhile taking a step away from something and looking at it from afar. That way you can often get a better perspective of what you are looking at.

Now Arsenal’s Premier League form – especially away- has been poor in 2017. We are already 16 points behind Manchester City, which is a gap that is too far to bridge. Man City are as short as 1/25 to win the title, Arsenal a massive 150/1.

But then on Sunday, during the Liverpool v Everton game, I got a bit of perspective of the situation we are in.

Arsenal are awful, apparently. The majority of the time during the game against Southampton and after, everyone was slagging us off. Highlighting how bad we are. The poor run we are on. Much of it was justified.

During the Scouse Derby, the commentator said Liverpool have been an irresistible force this season. I dropped this into a WhatsApp group and most people seemed to agree with the commentator. The

Liverpool had been brilliant this season. Their free flowing attacking football was superior to our turgid play that was not bringing us any results.

But then I posted up the league table. The brilliant Liverpool were just a single point ahead of Arsenal, and had only scored 4 more league goals. It bought some perspective to our thinking.

Yes, we are out of the title race, but everyone bar Manchester City is out of the title race.

We sit in 5th place, ahead of another irresistible force in Tottenham. We are just 3 points behind Chelsea. In fact, just 4 points separates Chelsea in 3rd and Spurs in 6th.

I am very much of the opinion that Manchester City are awesome this season. Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs are all fairly average.  And Manchester United sit somewhere in between the two groups.

This was highlighted this weekend by Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool all failing to win.

The result against Southampton was a disappointing one, but some perspective needs to be used. We are not as poor as people are making out, likewise Liverpool, Spurs et al are not as good as people are making out.

Whilst we are talking about Liverpool, I have seen the Jurgen Klopp interview from Sunday. He looks a man under pressure.

People go on about him like he is a great manager. That he has transformed Liverpool. But again, if you take a step away and look from afar, what has he actually achieved?

In the two seasons Klopp has been at the club, Liverpool have finished 8th and 4th – the last two seasons of Brendan Rodger, Liverpool finished 2nd and 6th.

On top of this, Klopp is without a trophy in his first 2 seasons. A failure to win a cup this year will make it 3 seasons without a trophy.

How long will the media and Liverpool fans continue to gloss over his failures?

It is a bit like Tottenham. Everyone talking about how great they are, how great Pochettino is. But they have also won nothing.

Meanwhile, look at Arsenal. 3 FA Cups in 4 years and people say Arsene Wenger is not doing a good job.

Now I am not saying he is doing a good job, but he certainly is not doing a poor job. We have perhaps become trophy snobs. The FA Cup no longer deemed good enough. Deemed enough.

But then looking through history, this is the 4th most successful period in Arsenal’s history (1930-37, 1987-1993, 1998-2005). 3 trophies in 4 years.

Things may not feel great at Arsenal at the moment, but we are still in with a chance of winning 3 competitions.

Have a little positivity in your life. It is Christmas after all.

Keenos