Morning all.
Huddersfield weren’t expected to get anything from their trip to Toots yesterday but West Ham must feel very disappointed not to have gone home with a point from Old Trafford. A goal disallowed for them and two penalties awarded to Utd, oh the irony. Perhaps Liverpool will do us a favour later and take Chelsea to the cleaners. If the day ends with them being where they are now in the league then it’s good for us. Well, it gives us a chance to overtake them again tomorrow night. I guess this is how it’s going to be for the next few weeks.
The term ‘must win game’ is an odd one because every game is that from the day the season kicks off to the day it ends. That should be the approach to each fixture as it comes around anyway. There’s certainly more to ‘must win’ than just securing a top four place. Four competitions are there to be won every year, certainly for the top six clubs in England. Funny enough, securing top four isn’t one of them as there’s no trophy. But there is money, lots of it, and we could do with it. Or that’s what the club wants us to believe it seems.
The ‘top four trophy’ came about because of Arsene Wenger and his teams always qualifying for the Champions League but winning nothing. The media obviously thought it was funny but in all honesty it was just a dig at Arsene Wenger and Arsenal FC for our lack of trophies during that period of time. It mattered not that most of the other clubs in the league were winning bugger all, Arsenal was their focus. We’d been successful under Wenger but we didn’t push on. We regressed and they probably loved it. The FA Cup trophies returned which put an end to the yearly trophy drought count so the focus then shifted to the league. How predictable they are eh… Meanwhile, the top four has become something to aim for, a big achievement. For Liverpool, Toots and Utd…..
Anyway, we’re still in the mix for one of those positions. Third isn’t impossible, fourth probably more likely if we’re going to scrape in. I base that view purely on our fixture list.
We simply have to start winning away from home. This is a big week for the club. By the end of it we could be out of the Europa Cup and out of control of our own destiny in the league. However, we could also be in the Europa League Cup semifinals and third in the league table. Or one or other of course.
Two big performances, a win tomorrow followed by nothing worse than a 1-0 defeat on Thursday and our season carries on. At least our hopes will.
I’m off to find a hubcap, just to look the part. I’ll be a fan for just ninety minutes. Not really a fan, I just hope they win and win big….
See you in the comments guys…
Great one Rico. just hope they have all seen a psychologist to help them come out of their fear. To be honest, if faced against the gunners in my home fixture, all I need do is to terrify them. Then the likes of Monreal, Mustafi and co will be terribly terrified and forget how to play football. That’s how Liverpool will react to us and in only fifteen minutes we will be four goals down. Come on gunners, it’s all in your hands, whatever made you to almost walk away with three points against the Tots, replicate same and third place will be yours.
Thanks Daniel.
The Watford game last season still irks, and Deeney comments after…
Morning Gooner’s
Morning Rico, the influence of the home crowd in the decision making of referees has long been accepted by all football fans even if the authorities and media do their best to sweep it under the carpet and we’ve all heard the vacuous comment favoured by tossers like Alan Shearer and Jamie Carragher ‘It’ll balance itself out over the season’ on TV after another favourable performance for the home team at Old Trafford, Anfield and Eastlands by the officials, although it rarely does.
This season has been one of the worst in living memory with two or three managers talking about a negative result in the post match interviews and bringing VAR into the discussion every week on a MotD and yesterday was no exception.
It seems the even more defined differences repeating itself on match days in refereeing performances in favour of the home team is more pronounced than ever as Man Utd yet again enjoyed the kind of favourable refereeing decisions not seen anywhere in Europe since probably the Calciopoli scandal in Italy just over 12 years ago.
I felt so sorry for West Ham as they probably deserved not only a result but to probably win at Old Trafford, but another questionable decision by an official cost them the opening goal, a decision that would never have been given if it had been a Man Utd goal, we just know that…
Mike Riley has presided over the worst decline in refereeing standards in England that I can remember, yet he is untouchable, nobody questions his leadership of the PGMOL, such as it is!
Meanwhile we as fans wait for VAR, as if it’s going to solve all of our gripes, whilst forgetting that the same bunch of idiots who do ‘the middle’ are also going to be managing VAR.
Personally I think that Riley should lose his job, but he’s part of cabal that runs football in this country and they aren’t going to get rid of one of their own, just ask that multi millionaire, Gordon Taylor…
Morning Kev.
Good comment, spot on imo. Except the decisions don’t seem to go for the home side when we’re at The Emirates. I just think Riley and the FA have an agenda and we’re in the mix. Along with other clubs too I hasten to add but Toots, Utd and Chelsea all seem to get a slice of good fortune when it matters.
Hazard is one of the biggest diving cheats in the game, but how often does he get booked? And I wonder how many fouls the Watford players will get away with tomorrow night…?
Morning Rico and all. The PL title and top 4 places are going to be decided by dodgy ref decisions. Perhaps they already have been and as you say Kev, nothing will be done and Riley will sail on to foreign holidays anew.
Morning Adam. I think so. I know we were dire last weekend but an early penalty ‘might’ have made a difference to the end result..
Afternoon all and thanks Bindipper Rico, settle down settle down ! 🙂
I want a draw from Scouse/Chav game as it helps us/me in two ways………..Chavs want more than a point and Scousers like yourself 😆 will be unbearable if they win the league !
Hoping Watford players will be in Wembley Mode tomorrow night, not wanting to pick up an injury, but we are pants away from home and our biggest problem for trying to get top 4 trophy, so unless we do a complete turn around with the away form then we are fcuked imo…………………….two homes wins wont get us top 4 and imo the EL is now looking the easier route !
A point for Chelsea could make a difference to us before the end on May though Lc.
Some common sense from Alex ………………. 😆
‘Mesut is a great player and he also works hard off the ball,’ Iwobi told The Sun. ‘Fans sometimes don’t appreciate what he gives to the team. ‘I don’t know the stats but with Mesut in the team you are always going to get at least three chances a game from him.
I just cant stand the thought of Bindippers winning the league, Rico, I`d rather not get CL if it meant they dont win the league, their deluded fans do my head in and their accent grates on my brain ! 😆
G’day Rico and all, just four days and our season could effectively be over. Lose tomorrow at Watford and by more than 1 – 0 on Thursday and that’s it. Just a scramble for sixth place and another season of Europa League left.
We could lay some of the blame at the PGMOL’s door but realistically it is our own profligacy in front of goal that has caused us so much grief. Two of the worst offenders have been Ramsey and Aubameyang, I can’t count the number of scoring chances the pair have passed up between them. How different Ozil’s assist figures would look if they had managed to score with fifty percent more effectiveness. Nobody would have been talking about flogging him then.
I feel sorry for The Hammers, they really gave it a go and deserved better from the officials.
My favourite midfielder and, latterly, manager is being investigated by the police for an assault on the opposing manager at yesterday’s game which left him covered in blood. Guess who? Yes Joey Barton.
Oops! I missed out the word “least” between My and favourite there. .😉
Good report rico. Morning all. Deeney’s comments still annoy greatly. But you know why? Because what he was saying was correct, and although we say it ourselves, he was out of order gloating after a game. But he ‘was’ telling it how it is, unfortunately.
Hi Cicero, there’s a parrot in the house…. lol
Very true re Ozil, Aubameyang has been especially wasteful.
Lc, my hunch is City will win the league, Liverpool will win the CL..
Thanks Andrew. He said what we were all thinking and still probably are about our away form. I just don’t understand how the same group of players can be so different in games.
Hope the 2nd hunch is wrong aswell ! 🙂
I actually want Mansour City to win the lot and prove unquestionably that obscene wealth matters most when running a football club !……………………………..aparrently PSG owner is looking to buy an English club from The Championship, had I known this earlier in the season I would have hoped for us to get relegated !
😆
Le Coq, you should change your name to Janus. You want Man City to win the lot to prove it’s all down to money. Then go on to say that you want Arsenal to do the same with money from PSG.
Janus, He is usually depicted as having two faces. 😉
We really are the grand old duke of yorks army are we not . One week we are up and then the next we are down and to top it off we don’t exactly know where we stand one week to the next.
I was working in the garden with the missus yesterday and we had the football on listening to the radio. As 1 all was approaching the end I said to her United will get a late goal because they always do . I haven’t seen the incidents yet but two penalties against a side that from the commentary appeared to be the better team is just typical and almost predictable .
For years the balance of fairness has been slanted , if you ask any supporter of any of the premiership teams they will tell you that their team suffers from poor refereeing decisions , but one thing that they all say is that decsions are tilted towards Old Trafford.
Riley and his merry men are totally untouchable . Any manager that speaks out gets his wages taken off him for a couple of weeks and the papers / TV never look and the veracity of what he has said. It is rumoured that they are paid handsomely to ignore bad decisions and that it’s part of their deal to be able to cover football that they cannot criticise .
I believe this to be true and instead of looking at the root cause of problems they are happy to comment on the aftermath of the incompetancy . How many times does the player that reacts get booked whilst the perpertator of the original foul gets a ticking off ?. How many managers get fined for pointing out the bleeding obvious ? It’s rotten and needs exposing.
However money is always there and where there is money there is corruption
I make you 100% correct Adam, more so that at any season that I can recall, as you so rightly say, the top four places will be decided by questionable refereeing decisions, regardless of how we play our rivals for the top four are enjoying the kind of good fortune we can only dream of.
But don’t worry, Riley and his dodgy men will give us a few advantageous decisions probably when it’s too late for us to benefit from them, vs Burnley perhaps?
Old Trafford gets it all… usually anyway and certainly since that 49th match..
Cicero, of course I want to be richer than MC, infact I`d sell my soul to the devil if we could exchange owners with them !……………………I want us to be obscenely rich and have an obscene amount of trophies bought !……………………you can rest on your laurels with none having days out along the broads drinking fine wine etc`, but I`d prefer a boring job at The Arsenal and just polish the trophies ! hahaha
Hazard hits the post with the Chavs 2 – 0 down. If Liverpool lose this there will be 50,000 scousers needing counselling. Another save denies Hazard again.
Well done Tiger Woods. After all he’s been through…
Golf, a game where blokes in funny trousers, wearing one glove walk around a field trying to knock a small ball into a small hole with a stick. Eighteen times on the trot. Ludicrous!
Almost as bad as formula 1. Twenty blokes driving single seater cars round the same bit of road fifty six times and wearing out two or three sets of tyres whilst doing so and they fly halfway round the World to do it. Potty!
I love both Cicero. I always thought golf was a tad boring to watch until I started playing. Love it now..
Haven’t driven a F1 car though, yet…..
New post up now