Morning all.
Captain for the day, Oleksandr Zinchenko led his team out at The King Power Stadium. A team which saw Eddie Nketiah rested. I was surprised to see him on the bench, purely because he’s the only out and out striker Mikel Arteta has available right now but Leandro Trossard is a versatile player, he said so himself during his interview after signing for Arsenal in January. So far, I think he’s been exactly what Arsenal needed at this stage of the season. Jorginho too.
From a corner, Arsenal went ahead. Ward punched the corner from Bukayo Saka clear, Leandro Trossard took a couple of touches before shooting from distance. Accurate, pacy and in! But, VAR intervened and after Pawson was advised to take a look at the pitch side monitor, Ben White was adjudged to have fouled Ward as he cleared the original corner kick. Right call? By the letter of the footballing law, yes. Clear and obvious? Absolutely not. As Tom Jones has been singing for years, “it happens all the time”. It’s not unusual for decisions to go against us either…..
Two more contentious decisions went against us. Another goal disallowed, this time because of an offside which the linesman flagged. Had he left it for VAR to rule on, we might have seen the offside lines, but honestly, I think the outcome would have been the same. However, there’s no doubt in my mind that Arsenal should have been awarded a penalty when Bukayo Saka was bundled over in the box. That was in my opinion, clear and obvious. Would we have scored? We’ll never know.
‘Same old Arsenal, always moaning’ – well what does anyone expect when each time we play, our players are subjected to some rough stuff. Granit Xhaka too a wak in the back, Gabriel Martinelli was stamped on his knee and Bukayo Saka was roughed up on more than one occasion. A strong challenge is very different to being kicked from behind. Frequently!
In between all of that, we scored a very good goal. A clearance from Gabriel out to Leandro Trossard on the left, a nutmeg pass through a Leicester City player’s legs into the path of Gabriel Martinelli who, with a lot of work to do, slid a lovely shot past Webb. I thought he’d suffered a serious injury after his knee was trodden/stamped on but thankfully not although I bet he’s sore this morning.
The 1-0 win doesn’t really reflect the game as Mikel Arteta’s team was in total control for most of it. A few nervy moments at the end perhaps but I can’t remember Aaron Ramsdale having an easier 95 minutes. Leicester had one shot all game and that was off target.
A narrow Arsenal win reports the BBC who then go on to publish the stats:
Possession:
Home – 34%
Away – 66
Shots:
Home – 1
Away – 10
On Target:
Home – 0
Away – 2
Corners:
Home – 0
Away – 8
Fouls:
Home – 14
Away – 9
Bookings:
Home – 0
Away – 1
I think to do what to do what the team has done here today is very, very difficult. I think we dominated the game from the start almost to finish, we had a difficult 10 or so minutes where we gave so many balls away that we lost a little bit of control, but in general, I think our play and understanding of the space, how they were pressing, how we got into final third positions was excellent. We lacked a little bit of that final pass to score more or create bigger chances, I think we weren’t over the decision with the disallowed goal, which was difficult to take, but to stay really focussed and determined to do that, I think defensively we were incredible because we restrict Leicester to one shot on target in the whole game at home is a difficult thing to do. The players did really well. Mikel Arteta
That was a battering for Leicester City in all but the scoreline. A 10th away win for Arsenal, the same number we managed throughout the whole of last season which is a huge improvement. I know we still have to go to Anfield, The Etihad and St James Park but there’s nothing to say we can’t get something from those fixtures.
Next up, Everton!
Catch up in the comments.
I am annoyed by the card for Saka. An innocuous sideways tap whilst remaining on his feet, that clearly got the ball first. Yet he gets clattered endlessly without action. Second game running he has been booked. Absolutely ridiculous, the club should make more of it because imo there IS an agenda running h
Saka? Martinelli was the one booked..
Morning Rico and all,
We need to work on passing, it looked to me that we were too soft with our long passes and our short passes were so hard that we nearly knocked our own player over.
Meanwhile Arteta needs to talk to Ramsdale, his showing off will cost us a win one day.
Overall, an improved performance from 2 to 3 matches back.
I’m guess Eddie got dropped for 2 reasons, (1) missing to many easy goals (2) given a rest.
Hi Geoff, rested I think.
Hi Rico and All , It does seem to be getting a bit ridiculous now , Is it time for somebody to ask the powers that be, if there really is an agenda against Arsenal. Every decision goes against us. Like you say Saka gets kicked all over the place and we get nothing. We make one foul and get booked…………I hate to be one of those supporters who moans about decisions against us , but come on !!
Sorry, Moaning again……10 shots – 2 on target not a great return again. Can’t blame Eddie either.
Hi Mike, it wouldn’t have been had the officials been better.
I often wonder who the senior referee is . How many times do we see a referee go to the screen and then stick to his original decision .
Pawson was poor and the match referee in Stockley Park was definitely a Greek poet from the 8th century.
No doubt at some time we will see a compilation of VAR’s failures across the whole league and we should feature heavily in it.
Webb has certainly got a job to do , if , as they said on mission impossible ” Should he wish to accept it.”
Somebody needs to , I watched a bit of football when I was in Spain and they don’t have slide rules out on every goal . VAR only interferes if something is obviously wrong.
Spain have it right imo, it’s the FA/PL who moved the goal posts so I read.l
I am going to have to look at the recording but following the microscopic VAR on Trossards goal , apparently when Kane scored today Dier was all over Mount I believe but there was no review. Must have been the same guy that either saw or didn’t the Saka incident.
Not seen that one but I bet it’s worse than White’s.
I saw that Kane goal. Dier used Mount as a springboard. It was crazy after yesterday.
Nothing whatsoever mentioned on the TV. Not even considered.
So much for the apologies they gave Arteta last time,
Good morning all, the thing that concerns me about Trossard’s disallowed goal is why did VAR get involved in the first place?
Pawson had signalled a goal, he did not ask VAR for confirmation so only if there had been “clear and obvious” error there was no reason for them to intervene. From what was shown on tv and the length of time it took VAR to decide to tell Pawson to view the pitch side monitor, there certainly was not that “clear and obvious error”. Pawson should not have been sent to the pitch side monitor. The goal should have stood.
As it happens it did not affect the outcome of the match in terms of points, but it is detrimental to our Goal Difference stats.
Another addition to the growing list of “errors” affecting our chances of winning the Premiership title.
The ever delightful Gallagher says we should have been awarded a penalty but said, it was a good spot by VAR for the White foul.
Didn’t Pawson ask for the foul to be checked after Ward complained?
If the referee went to VAR every time a player felt hard done by the game would last all night.
Maybe Saka needs to get more vocal , however he would probably get fined . If he got the same protection that Saint Marcus gets and the targetting stopped we would probably be six points better off .
Exactly. I don’t agree with it one bit. I think we all know what’s going on and it stinks.
With every decision that goes against Spurs Kane is in the refs ear, he and others of his team use it as a tactic to break up the flow of the game and waste time. The refs, all of them, seem to be intimidated by the Spud’s captain and the commentators ignore his dissent.
It’s more than just Spurs though Remember Newcastle , Everton and a few others . Kane has the Shearer protection syndrome that goes with the England captaincy .
Just for once, at the end of the match, I would like to see our players shake the hands of the other team’s players and clap our fans but totally ignore the refs, and when they complain respond by saying we will shake their hands when the ref’s and VAR treat us like any other club.
I agree with that Geoff. If the refs have been fair and had a good game, shake their hands and thank them. If they have been rubbish, then visibly blank them . It can’t make anything worse .
Arsenal need to ask straight out in public if there is an agenda against them. Record every instance of wrong doing and get the refs thinking. They hate us anyway so what harm can it do ?
New post up
I wouldn’t want us to do that. Rise above it I think and hope we have the last laugh..