There is not much to talk about the match. You all watched it and it was a shame Michael Oliver decided to be the main character of it. If it’s the referee who is ‘talked about’ the most after a match, something is wrong.
A brief match report – City opened the game really well, made us suffer for the first 15 min but we gradually took control of the game. Calafiori scored a brilliant one in his first start for Arsenal to level up and Gabriel provided the lead with a brilliant header soon after. We got to see a lengthy added time when Leandro Trossard, who was already on a yellow, made a shoulder barging challenge and kicked the ball in about 1 second since the whistle. Michael Oliver decided that it was a big enough incident to award him another yellow and putting us to 10 men. Fine. But Doku kicked the ball in similar manner like 2 minutes back, Michael Oliver had seen that and decided that it didn’t deserve a card. With 10 men against one of the best teams on the planet, Mikel decided to switch to a 5-4 system, brought White in place of Saka and we defended like our lives depended on it. We did it for 45 minutes and again, 7 whole minutes were added to the game. City scored 7 seconds before the game ended, in the 98th minute. Yes, you read that right.
A 2-2 scoreline at the end of the day, with Man City celebrating a draw at their home ground, and Arsenal gutted to lose 2 points after giving all they had. That’s all.
Now, lets get back to the real concern. When are the PGMOL and the referees stop ruining games for their bias and incompetence is ruining the experience for the fans, players and the teams? At this point, it’s not even incompetence but a bias because the law of average would average it for teams like Arsenal.
Last weekend, Szoboszlai of Liverpool was on a yellow and kicked the ball away. The time between the whistle and the kick was 1.13 seconds. For Trossard, it was 1.07 seconds. Only one of them got the second yellow and sent off. Heck, just a few minutes back before Trossard was sent off, Doku kicked the ball away and delayed the restart right in front of Michael Oliver and Oliver did nothing. Doku wasn’t even carded yet, so it’s not like a decision which could have hampered the game right (sarcasm intended) ?
Do you remember the game against Man City last season when Kovacic had a challenge on Martin Odegaard which should have been a RED? Well, the 4th official came out in public and told everyone that Kovacic deserved a Red card but Michael Oliver didn’t like to have a negative impact in a big game. Well, he did last night. So, lets rephrase that ‘didn’t like to have a negative impact in a big game’. Michael Oliver don’t like to take a decision that has a negative impact on Man City and he is perfectly fine to award yellows for no reason if it favors Man City.
Mark Goldbridge, a Manchester United supporter, calls out Michael Oliver and Howard Webb, calling them idiots for those decisions. It takes some real talent to make a United supporter speak in favor of Arsenal.
Right, so call it incompetency or bias whatever you like. Is there no one who looks at it and says what the fuck is going on? How is Michael Oliver ending up as a ref in games where he shouldn’t be? If Howard Webb found out the Kovacic red cards should have been given last season, how did Michael Oliver still ends up in the game where Man City and Arsenal are playing? People get fired for those kind of incompetence.
Lets move to the positive – we are winning the league this season. I was furious when we bought Calafiori when we needed a midfield and a CF on priority. I think I understand the logic behind it. We started the game with Calafiori as LB and Timber on the right. Both playing in their natural positions and both were quite good. A new back 4 where Timber didn’t play a single game as a RB and Calafiori has not started a game yet, did well to manage City. It will improve and I think we would eventually end up with this back 4. We are playing a lot of games and Ben White will get his chances. Zinchenko and Kiwior – not so much.
Secondly, Mikel is learning to adapt. Bringing off Saka for White after the red card was a decision I was praying for but didn’t expect. Arteta read the situation, said fuck it and put everyone behind the ball. There is no shame in fighting dirty. Specially when you are playing a game 10 v 12 where one of your player was sent off for god knows why and the referee is a City player, only not wearing the kit himself. We fought, we fought well to keep the lead and we would have come back with 3 points if there was not deflection and if there was not an ‘eternity’ of extra time awarded. We were sad that we drew against the current champions, at their home, with 10 men. We are gonna be fine in coming days.
Lets go back to game again and count the cunts. Referee, already talked about. Haaland was so eager he added himself to the list. Throwing a ball to Gabriel’s head from behind when the player has tshirt over face is as cuntish as it can get. Calling the opponent manager to ‘stay humble eh’ after a game when you haven’t been one yourself is idiotic behaviour. Asking a 17 year old kid ‘who the fuck are you’ and trying to be the strong one just shows his man child nature. You can have Zlatan’s attitude but not his grace. So, fuck off.
Bernando Silva. Silva in his post match interview praised Liverpool and told everyone that Liverpool had already won PL title and Arsenal haven’t and that Klopp’s team always faced them with clear intention of winning the game which we didn’t. What a wanker. Liverpool didn’t get yellow carded for no reasons and reduced to 10 men whenever they played in a big game. With 10 men, and a 2-1 lead, do you expect a clean fight? Are you daft or what? And if you do, tell Michael Oliver next time that you don’t need his ‘favors’ to win games. WE are waiting for you at Emirates, will see how much intent you bring.
Manuel Akanji – branded Arsenal the masters of football’s ‘dark arts’ – but claimed it will not be enough to take the title from Manchester City. Well, mate, we will take it from you this season. And the dark arts you are talking about, our manager learnt it from yours. It’s just that we are doing it better and not adding ‘cheating’ to it. Do you have ‘dark arts’ in one of those 115 charges by any chance?
I have a lot more to talk but it’s almost 3 am and I am still upset with the game. Win, lose, rivalries – all are part of a game and frankly, I would have taken a loss if it was a fair fight. But some very incompetent decisions made the game between no.1 and no.2 team a boring fest. People watching it felt cheated because they expected a game but what they got was a team with 10 men trying to hold on to the lead and a team putting everyone bar their GK in the opposition half.
Lets not ruin the games. If City does better than Arsenal on it’s own, let it be. If not, let it be, as well. Don’t try to be a hero.
I should go get some sleep. I would read everything you say in the comments. Please ignore any grammar mistakes and have a good one.
TRVL,
Just read your style-of-play comment. I agree with that to a bit, I miss the Ozil/Sanchez and wenger’s style of play and I have been an advocate of Klopp’s football in recent times than Pep/Arteta’s positioning play and frustrating the opponents by passing a hundred times among ourselves.
I remember some of the beautiful goals from Wilshere, Walcott, Sanchez, even Aubameyang which gave goosebumps. The style of play Mikel and Pep plays bores the game.
The problem is, you can’t fight this possession-based football with a free flowing football. That’s why even the likes of Brighton and Aston Villa are now switching to play-from-the-back. But it’s just a phase, it will pass. Tiki-Taka, Mourinho’s park the bus, Wenger’s no defence only attack football has all been replaced. Someone will come up with a better alternative and football will evolve.
New post.
Ambarish—two points:
(1) I’m by no means defending the actions of the officials, as I’m of the belief that the professional standards have actually dipped since the introduction of VAR…that said, I think it’s important to note that things were already reaching a crisis point prior to it’s introduction, which directly impacted how this particularly flawed VAR model was going to be implemented…instead of choosing this papering over the cracks version they should have adopted the same model FIFA had used on the world’s stage…by not doing so, no outside eyes were allowed in the room, so the underlying issues continued to fester
until a new level of trust is forged between the players/managers and the officials, these problems will continue to not only persist, they’ll actually flourish, to the detriment of the product on the field…in order for any real change to come about an independent oversight committee needs to be formed to root out the systemic problems, then they can finally turn the page…to ensure future success I would tie their wages to a much higher level of accountability, so that although I would pay them vastly more, which would likewise lower the chances of any funny business, they would face far more severe ramifications, including termination, if they failed to live up to the newly established higher standards
on a side note, I would personally like to see some sort of “sin bin” situation in all of football, especially when it came to dealing with more minor, non-violent infractions
(2) no one is suggesting that MA should deploy an all-out blitzkrieg-like attacking model, but there are other ways to skin a possession-based cat…knowing full-well that City was always going to our biggest stumbling block, it was imperative that he devised a system that would be most effective against our chief competitor…if you look at the tape City is most vulnerable when playing against counter-attacking sides, so why not invest heavily in a side that could become the world standard when it came to countering with numbers and pace…instead he’s been hellbent on constructing a poor man’s version, which I find to be a rather depressing blunt instrument managerial model