I just want to congratulate Mike Dean for his win over Arsenal yesterday.
Letting an Everton player stamp on an Arsenal player’s face? Letting another player come in late and high and kick an Arsenal player studs up in the shins? Letting those same two players shove an Arsenal player into the advertisings and kick an Arsenal player in the knee?
All good for Dean.
Yepp, he´s a proper cunt (sorry for the foul language)
Shocking decisions by MD but poor performance by the team too.
Unfair to attribute it all to Xhaka but he doesn’t speed up our play.
‘Clinical’ Eddie could have rescued us but it would have been more than we deserved had he lived up to expectations.
Maybe the city just has a hex on us.
I expect this team to be good enough to beat the poorest Everton team we’ve seen in a while 11 v 11. It should have been 10 v 11, for sure. But it wasn’t, and we lost.
We shouldn’t have to rely on fine margins to beat a team like this.
What a crap game.
Sorry to be contrarian, but I don’t think the stamp on the face was intentional nor do I think the player was reckless coming into Tomiyasu and for me those have to be the minimum criteria for a red, not the (potential) seriousness of injury. If unintentional and non-reckless incidents are automatically red cards, then Luiz should have gone off last year for breaking Jimenez’s skull? Had an Arsenal player gotten a red for that stamp I would have been livid.
The high foot on the shin, yes, VAR should have made that a red card because it was a reckless challenge that could have resulted in serious injury. But at that stage it was 2-1 for Everton already and honestly, should have been 4-1 because there’s no way those two goals should have been called offside. When the margins are so close, the assessment should be in the spirit of the off-side rule’s origins, and did that attacker gain an advantage by being ahead of the 2nd last defender when the ball was played? No, clearly there was no advantage to Richarlison being 2 inches beyond Gabriel or Tomiyasu.
Gabriel had a bad game yesterday, there was some chronic refusal to take the pass on his back-foot and switch the ball and that caused a lot of bad turn-overs. Plus he missed Richarlison on the header. Arteta had a bad game too – I don’t get Tavares for Tierney and don’t understand how Xhaka was left on when he had a yellow and hadn’t played for 2 months. AMN or Sambi would have made the initial tackle/foul on Decoure to prevent the 2nd goal.
I have no idea what’s going on with our attack. Pepe is MIA. Laca huffs and puffs but can’t blow a straw house down. Auba looks frustrated. Is Nketiah staying or not? Is Balogun going out on loan despite tearing it up for the U-23’s? Why not give him some game time?
I cannot see how Arteta out-coaches Rangnick, Conte or Moyes. That leaves us 7th at best.
Jack, have to disagree on the stamp. Intent is hard to divine, but reckless play, like the good judge said about online adult entertainment… you know when you see it. And let’s separate calls we should have had from the fact that we played badly, or the state of the game. We played badly, and were unfortunate with bad non-calls. Both those things are true. The Everton player who stamped on Tomi was rampaging like a wild thing all game. Send him off early, and with all the unrest and bad vibes Everton had going into that game, they are far less likely to win it.
I agree with you about the offsides. The use of VAR in that manner is a mockery of the intent of the technology. The least we can hope for is consistent application of it, which I fear wont happen. Richarlison scoring (eventually) felt like a just outcome.
I did not understand Tierney’s substitution, but hey, only the coaching staff really knows about why. You know what happened? Again? A Tavares turnover in his own third led to a goal. It wasn’t his fault this time (he got put in a bad spot by Partey), but the fact is that it’s the third time in recent games. Tierney has been fit and injury free for weeks, unlike Xhaka, who played the whole game. We were told only days ago that he’d resumed normal training. His injury timeline originally suggested a return closer to the new year. Twice it looked like Arteta brought Thomas back before he was full there. Xhaka? I don’t know, but his manager has form.
Pepe’s wing play can be frustrating, but he creates goal involvements in excess of his time on the pitch. Not seeing a single minute in about 4 straight games is bizarre. But then again, Arteta has form here too. Saka got a hard knock early second half, and limped around for a good 5 minutes. It was hard to tell if he fully shook it off, but he should have been subbed. Saka gets kicked a lot. I dont know if big lumps hate it when this cherubic kid who looks like 15 mugs them on the pitch. If we play him like this, we risk losing him for the crowded holiday schedule. You heard it here first.
I’m frankly surprised Saka has played the last two games with what looked like a strained hip flexor a couple games ago. Now ESR is hurt.
December is a big month for us, considering we’re losing Auba, Pepe and Partey in January – Southampton, West Ham, Norwich, Leeds and Wolves. If we want to stay in touch with 4th place, that needs to convert into 12 points from a potential 15. Based on the last two games I think we’re looking more a bet for 6 points.
I’m tired of the bizarre managerial decisions. Xhaka was clearly gassed early in the second half.
With this coment am convinced you’re not an Arsenal fan with all what you said. Maybe you’re just following this page to while away time.
So unless you see things through a completely biased lens, you’re not a fan? Fuck you.
Watch the replay a few times so we do not make an error of judgement. Godfrey slightly raises his leg and less slowly than if it was a natural follow through momentum , brings it slowly on Tomi’s face. So the only excuse would be that he was careful not to rip his face, just a bruise. So is it an extenuating circumstance?
Am joking
Don’t know why I believed we’d turned a corner. Think it was just the psychological relief of not having to watch Xhaka.
As Fox says, unfair to attribute it all to him, but his return highlights and exacerbates all the (long-standing) issues with the manager’s approach.
Mike Dean made some finger-wagging wide-eyed gesture suggesting Nuno Tavares had dived late in the game. Never have I more wanted half the team to forget the game and just smack the diva upside the head.
Sorry to bitch on about it. We were awful MA should stand down but I did say here previously that refs have got it in for us. Started way back when we were going for 50 + 0 at OT and prick Riley was ref. Yest Tomi incident Dean doesn’t even take a look and var decide not clear and obvious.WTF? Tomi again at OT slab head pulls him down in box no var check. Yest again kicking shit out of Saka no bookings and of course studs up on Nuno again again nothing. My main grief was that NONE of our players got stuck in to those miserable gits. None of our players did jack. Jeez could you imagine if that happend and we had men in our team? I’m talking Ollie, Sanchez, Song, Cesc, let alone our invincibles. You want to know why? I’ll tell you because an army of sheep led by a lion will defeat an army of lions led by a sheep. MA you are a sheep and flock right off outta our club!
When (and IFF) The various football authorities allow the government to investigate Football in this country, the performance(s) of the PGMOL elite should be high on the list of debate and enquiry.
At the very best, those decisions of Mike Dean and other recent PGMOL officials has been inconsistent. A bit higher up the scale is their failure to show a duty of care towards ALL of the players (from both teams). The worst scenario is the possibility of a UK style Calciopoli, where clubs, officials, players, and leagues are susceptible to the power of betting in Football.
The problem for fans in the UK is that we have become far too used to accepting corruption and sleaze, and the very thought of an “inept” government investigating another ptentially corrupt organisation is the stuff of flying pigs.
Yes, currently, we are poor, but I disagree with the “decisions not to blame for defeat” brigade. It must be extremely disallusionary for players and management when 4 of the last five games have seen our player injured or seriously fouled, whilst the Officials refuse to take the required responsibility and punish the offenders.
In a nutshell, I think our players are now SCARED of getting seriously hurt during a game, and that is affecting both confidence and freedom to express.
Lol Arteta, blaming the players again. Something about having the right structure but not executed well. I’m done with this management + self help gratitude industry nonsense spewing, political arsehole.
I think Tomiyasu was lucky to stay in the game tbh.
It was a really dangerous play that could’ve resulted in a red card and a very nasty injury to Ben Godfrey’s ankle, had he rolled it on Tomiyasu’s awkwardly shaped face.
Weak, rudderless? Yes. Familiar, frustrating? Yes.
I actually thought we’d win. Arteta seemed to have found a formula with fast starts. But Everton started fast and we were so, so poor.
I wrote the last post this is who he is. In two years we’ve played more tactical styles and players than any other team in that period. What does that tell you?
And when it doesn’t work you can be sure of one thing – the players didn’t execute his plan.
We had four £50M+ players last night. Everton had Iwobi.
This season Arsenal’s have beaten the teams sitting 20th, 19th, 18th, 17th and 11th. Plus Villa and Spuds (who couldn’t bear the shame and changed their managers).
Course set for more mid table mediocrity.
Thanks for the post Tim.
We had a great run of form for a couple months but all of us have watched Arsenal for the last 15 years and every season has peaks and valleys. During the Wenger era it happened every season. We were a top 4 level team that could play like the best team in the league for a couple months or may be even half of a season but we always matched that with a similar run where we played like a mid table team and in the end we finished top 4 until the last couple of seasons. This is a mid table level squad and when it hits a run of good form and plays at peak efficiency it looks like a team capable of competing for the top 4 but like in the Wenger years almost no team can play its absolute best football for a whole season and based on a large sample size of historical evidence a downturn in our form was highly likely. When a mid table team hits a bad run of form it plays like a lower 1/2 of the table team. Just like in the Wenger years the good form and bad form balance each other out and we usually end up about where we should
To me the biggest problem for this team seems as obvious as an elephant in the room. We don’t have the firepower to be more then a mid table squad. We have scored 18 goals in 15 games. Last season we lacked firepower when Auba Laca and Pepe Auba, Laca scored 60% of our goals but this season we are getting almost no scoring out of any of those 3 players. Its very unlikely that anyone could build a team capable of a season long run of competing for the top 4 when you lose most of the production from your 3 leading scorers and you don’t have anyone left who can take realistically take up the majority of the slack.
That game was a mess, we’ve have been calling for Lacazette to start over Aubameyang but we all saw his performance yesterdax just 24 touches and 2 in opposition box according to octa. In my own opinion Aubameyang should’ve start the game and Saka is becoming unproductive. Can someone explain what pepe has done wrong to be snubbed and bring in Eddie maybe Arteta i trying to convince to sign. We don’t need him we have Balogun 16goals in 12games in premier league2 this season Arteta should please and let him go.
Pepe grins all the time. The Manager thinks he is disrespecting him ,guess. Or maybe Arteats does not like his features. If Eddie a striker can displace an established winger in the wings !
Whatever
Pepe has been with the team almost 2 1/2 seasons and other then a couple of 3-4 game runs of decent form he has done nothing to show that he deserves to get more playing time. When he does not score he adds very little to the attack or defense and he has played almost 500 league minutes this season and not scored so what is the point of using him? The only possible reason is because we don’t have any other forwards who can score and that lack of production tells you why we are a mid table team.
Unfortunately, what Bill describes seems to be pretty much the reality of things right now. ESR, Saka and Odegaard have outscored the more senior forwards. That’s a huge problem.
That said, I still don’t understand the choice to put Nketiah in instead of Pepe.
This match was poorly managed all the way around, and between this and the Utd match, I’m really questioning if Arteta can get the job done.
Maybe, and hear me out on this one, but maybe we shouldn’t have spent 50m on a CB we didn’t need and gotten ourselves a CF and MF we did need?
Just a thought I had back when we signed BW
Mike Dean was at the snooker yesterday wearing glasses. I mentioned this on Arseblog’s Twitter
Today, Mike Dean is again at the snooker – without his glasses!
Spooky eh?