Well, it’s the North London Derby time. One of the best teams in the world is going to get into sh*t and hope to come out clean. September is a tough month for us, we already have dropped points against Brighton – thanks to the referees, and we are going to play Tottenham away next Saturday with City coming up next. With a bit of dent in our confidence, we need the win. I will go into the matchday details in a later post and let me use this one to vent out my frustration.
Declan Rice received 2 yellows and is suspended for the Tottenham game. Why? Because a ref decided to fuck up. I am not getting into the discussion of whether it was right or wrong call. If it was right, Joao Pedro did the same and should have been sent off as well and the game should have continued 10v10.
First off, Veltman appeared to quickly take the free kick but the ball was still moving, which makes it illegal. Ref should have had a talk with both players and should have said play on. If you are hell bent on giving a card, because it’s an Arsenal player, you miss (or ignore, choose your words) the illegality of that free kick that was about to be taken. And why was no card given to Pedro when he kicked the ball halfway through?
At this stage, we don’t even want the referees to be RIGHT. We just want them to be CONSISTENT in their POOR REFEREEING.
Saka had to say this to BBC Sport :
I thought it was a bit harsh for us. We just want some consistency. Joao Pedro booted the ball halfway across the pitch in the first half and got nothing for it, and Dec got the slightest touch and was sent off. It is what it is; I don’t want to put the whole game on the referee as we still had chances to win it. It has been a good start. Today is a disappointment, but it is a long season.
source : bbc sports
Mikel Arteta On Declan Rice’s red card…
I was amazed. Amazed, amazed, amazed because of how inconsistent decisions can be. In the first half, there were two incidents and nothing happened. Then, in a non-critical area, the ball hits Declan, he turns around, doesn’t see the player coming and touches the ball. By law, he can make that call, but by law then he needs to make the next call which is a red card. So we play 10 against 11. This amazed me, at this level.
source:Arsenal.com
It’s such a shame that nothing has changed yet again this season. The ref was from Manchester and I don’t need to guess if it can affect your decisions on the field. It’s high time for neutral European referees who don’t care if you are playing in blue or red. The PGMOL is a circus that needs disbanding.
Right, that was on the ref. The next one is on Mikel.
We haven’t heard from Mikel yet but there were injury concerns for Odegaard and Timber. Declan Rice is out for sure because of the 2 yellows. It’s okay that we have Thomas Partey but we have seen drop in performance after the 60min mark. Against Tottenham, it’s going to be a high intensity game which require a very high level of concentration. Can Thomas do that for 90min? I doubt that. Jorginho, the same thing. So, we haven’t got a DM that can play 90 with the same intensity, our only RCM could be ruled out for the game and for LCM, we would be playing Merino – his first game in Arsenal color.
You see why I was worried when we sold ESR and loaned Vieira? Odegaard. If our captain picks up an injury, no one is their to do half his job. ESR was the closest, Vieira could have still covered but there’s no one else to cover that position. Declan Rice / Thomas Partey / Jorginho / Merino – fight for the other two positions.
Third – we needed a CF. We missed chances in the Brighton half. A proper CF would have converted atleast one. A scoreline of 1-1 with 10 minutes sounds like the best thing, but we could still have won had we converted.
Right, I was gone for a week celebrating my birthday in Jaipur, the pink city and a lot had happened before transfer window closed. We brought Raheem Sterling on loan from Chelsea. A move I would have hated if he was to be our first choice but everyone and their dog know that he is going to play those 20 min when Saka needs the rest. Mikel Merino finally made it, Calafiori was done deal long back, the deal for that Spanish goalkeeper collapsed so we loaned Neto for a season. Reiss Nelson left, Nketiah is gone, Vieira sent on loan and Aaron Ramsdale joined Southampton on a permanent deal.
A good clean up but I am not satisfied with the incoming. I don’t know we may have to start a fundraise to bring a CF to the club. That’s it for the day, I will be okay by next weekend and I’m sure we are going to enjoy a beautiful win against our arch rivals.
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