Morning all.
Having already been fined £65,000 for failing to control its players, Howard Webb admitted that Michael Oliver’s decision to send Myles Lewis-Skelly off against Wolves was a wrong one. It wasn’t a “horrendous mistake” he said however, I think the majority of people who were watching that game would strongly disagree. Any mistake made by the referee and then VAR, which ends up with a player sent off, is a horrendous one in my opinion. How do the FA/PL expect footballers to react to such an injustice, say it’s ok Michael, you’re only human and accept a decision with a smile? Apparently those who operate VAR didn’t and don’t want to re-referee games which if true, what’s the point of it? They are there to correct the mistakes, not to just agree with their old mate…
Two big games take place tonight. Liverpool go to Villa Park without the injured Gakpo but annoyingly, yet so typical of the luck they’re getting, Slot’s side face a Villa team with many injuries of their own. Still, I hope they can put a big dent in Liverpool’s Premiership title challenge.
In the Champions League, Juventus take a slim 2-1 aggregate lead into their game against PSV Eindhoven. The winners of that match or Feyenoord who secured their place in the next round last night, will be our next opponents. The draw takes place on Friday.
Another match to keep an eye on later is Real Madrid v Man City. City are 3-2 down from the first leg and I think it’s fair to say, their season rests on this competition and the FA Cup. Who’d have thought that a year ago eh?
Some good news on the financial front. This is from the official website.
Arsenal Holdings Limited has now filed its consolidated accounts for the Arsenal Group for the year ended 31 May 2024 at Companies House.
The overall loss for the year was £17.7 million (2023: £52.1 million). There were no exceptional items impacting the loss for the 2023/24 year whereas the prior year included £18.1 million of exceptional costs relating to impairment of player registrations.
The improvement in the underlying result reflects a return to playing in the UEFA Champions League, where the club reached the quarter-finals, and a strong performance in the Premier League, where the club led the table for much of the season, eventually finishing in second place. This football performance combined with the club’s commercial strategy enabled a significant growth in revenue. Revenue for the year was a record level of £616.6 million (2023: £466.7 million).
I’ve never had a head for finances, I leave all that to someone else but I do know that the more money Arsenal make, the more chance there is of the club signing players this summer which bearing in mind we have the likes of Jorginho and Thomas Partey available to leave for free, replacing them will be costly. The Partey of this season will be extremely difficult to replace in my opinion. I’d actually go as far to suggest he’s irreplaceable in a way Vieira, Petit and Gilberto were. I read a few negative comments elsewhere about his misplaced passes against Leicester City but those passes don’t and shouldn’t define his season. I wouldn’t be at all disappointed if he stayed for another season if his body is willing and able. Jorginho however is reported to have agreed a deal back in January to join Flamengo in the summer.
Anyway, all that can wait for a few months as for now, we have the game against West Ham to focus on.
Catch up in the comments.
Afternoon Rico.
Webb has made himself look ridiculous stating it wasn’t a horrendous decision, of course it was. He’s simply backing his buddy even knowing how many non-Arsenal friendly voices have this time shared our take on it and as you say, what is the point of VAR if they’re not going to advise on a contentious decision and make a fool of themselves!!
As for Partey, I don’t quite share your wish for him to remain, he’s too hot and cold for me, ever since he signed and yes, it would be negative to judge on just a few rogue passes but I’ve seen too many costly errors from him, I’ve also seen some solid tackles and interceptions but I suppose like a lot of fans I want more of the positive play.
Afternoon Berg, it’s an old boys club isn’t it..
I get that re Partey, but with Jorginho going to it seems, it’s a crucial area of the pitch to rebuild. I’ve not seen any hint of him staying though..
Tomiyasu has had surgery so we won’t be seeing him for a long time.
I saw a headline on Tommy, he’s had some injuries like Tierney who i like very much but he’s off too.
I’m not sure of the certainty of Zubamendi, madrid are interested in him too and as much as it’s a poison chalice to go to either of the two Spanish favourites, just like ManU they can’t or don’t want to resist even though deep down they know it would be wiser to join a better team, like Arsenal!!😊
I don’t believe any of the transfer talk, certainly not Zubimendi or Sesko.
It was a bad decision by Oliver, but it was an instant and instinctive one. The Var decision was infinitely worse, they had numerous camera angles and all the time in the world to get it right. The comments by Howard Webb are ludicrous. Has he taken the trouble to look for himself? That the initial decision proved to be erroneous is bad enough, but the failure of the Var to correct it is appalling. Is it bias, is it backing a mate or is it rank incompetence? Webb needs to face up to the fact that his entire organisation is not fit for purpose. Sad to say that he hasn’t even wheeled out the time honoured platitude “Lessons have been learned”.
It depends for me who says it, e.g Fabrizio Romano normally gets it right. I hope we get Zuba, I think Isak would be my choice over Sesko having proved himself in the EPL, Mbueno is probably more likely as Isak wants Liverpool.
@Cicero, there’s a reason Webb hasn’t wheeled out the platitude as he knows they haven’t been learned.
Agreed Cicero re VAR but Oliver shouldn’t have made such a big decision in the spur of the moment imo because I think he was guessing.
Ornstein is the only one I tend to pay any notice to..
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/2016396/Rio-Ferdinand-Gary-Neville-Jamie-Carragher-Arsenal
Good on Rio…
Ah yes Ornstein was the one I was trying to remeber.
Rio tends to give positive comments when there’s an Arsenal game on to be fair to him but he’s right, Neville is a pain in the butt and Carragher whining and whining and whining….then he spits at the public, now that’s a disgrace for a guy in his position, better ex players were kicked off Soccer Saturday for less!!
Both Carragher and Neville are anti Arsenal, thank goodness for mute options. 😝
Wenger brought in TH14 as a winger and converted him to a No. 9, perhaps Merino is Arteta’s version.
Imagine that? What a steal.
Howard Webb is a total hypocrite, after the game he could have overturned the red card but the PGMOL, PL and FA doubled down on a decision every fair minded person could see was wrong…
Oliver reacted that way because in that moment his anti-Arsenal feelings took over from common sense, it was a poor decision made in the heat of the moment but both VAR and Webb (PGMOL) showed cowardice in refusing to overturn it.
Bowing to Oliver’s reputation, a reputation that isn’t as shiny as it once was.
Do I expect more questionable decisions against Arsenal this season? You bet I do…
That’s interesting Berg because I can see comparisons with Joelinton at Newcastle, an expensive signing who didn’t make it as a striker but has been turned into a very effective midfielder.
Maybe Mikel Merino is going to do it in reverse?
Fair do’s to Rio Ferdinand for criticising both Carragher and Neville for their bias and hypocrisy, but I’ve also heard Rio talk some absolute bollocks about Arsenal in recent season’s so I’m not ready to proclaim him a friend of Arsenal quite yet!
Maybe he is just trying to ingratiate himself to Gooners in order to attract more ‘likes’ for his podcast.
Is that me being cynical again Rico?
He’s built for it Kev in my opinion, strong and tall and obviously good aerially.
Yes Berg, I was also impressed in how cool and calm he was as taking his goals, we’ve seen Kai miss absolute sitters with his barnet and seen others put shots on the wrong side of the post but he was chillax personified for both goals.
His header was exceptional, the way he timed his jump, twisted his neck to get optimum direction and really used his neck muscles and forehead to power home the header, I’ve not seen a striker do it better tbh.
Then his finish for the second, it of course was helped by a great cross by Trossard, right through the ‘arc of uncertainty’ between the defenders chasing back and the goalkeeper who didn’t know whether to stick or twist, but still I’ve seen plenty of our players muck up the finish.
Merino just timed his run to perfection and the ball came across adjusted his body shape side-on to allow him to use his left foot and control the shot beautifully.
Calm and clinical – like a top striker.
Very much so Kev. 😂
I can imagine Hojlund scoring a few goals in this Arsenal side. 😜
Another wasted talent Rico
What I’ve seen of Hojlund he is one of United’s worst signings of recent years. Along with Zirkzee and Casimero. We’ve bought too many United duds over the years, no more pleeaasse!
Maybe someone in United’s recruitment team is dyslexic,they thought they were signing Haarland and got Hojlund instead. 😉
Agreed Kev, Utd have ruined him.
😄 Cicero..
I like him though, still young enough to improve somewhere else..
Watching Sp*rs v ManU, I remarked to my son in law (he’s a spud) that this was the worst ManU team I can remember and he said only Bruno would get into their team, his opinion of course though he’s not far off. I honestly wouldn’t swap any of ManU’s hysterical team.
I wonder how long Amorim will last…
It will cost Sir Jim Ratcliffe a fortune in compensation if he decides to sack Amorin. Maybe they could get him to apply for voluntary redundancey as the club are looking to further reduce the number of employees.
Man C dodged a bullet with Amorim.
Liverpool wanted him too apparently but he refused to change his way of playing.
Dippers 1-0 up…
1-1
2-1 😂
Scored by an Arsenal fan 😂
Hope he gets a couple more..
Looks like City are out of the CL…
Aww poor city 😂
Darn, 2-2
2-2 it finished.
Now for West Ham…
Well that’s 2 points dropped for both 😊
PSV go through so it’s Rotterdam or Eindhoven , could be worse , it could be miles away.
Good morning all.
Ratcliffe is now in discussions with Spurs over his wish to cancel the Ineos sponsor ship deal.
In their latest published accounts United made a larger than expected loss, they are coming close to sanctions territory.
Seems as if Amorim is agitating to leave Man Utd and Ratcliffe is looking at a replacement already, I hope they wait until after we play them?
Arsenal’s succession after Arsene Wenger of Unai Emery, Freddie Ljungberg (caretaker) and Mikel Arteta looks almost faultless in comparison to a post Alex Ferguson United.
Morning people.
Can Utd afford to sack Amorim? I hope he stays…
Things aren’t rosy at Chelsea either and I still believe Liverpool have had a huge amount of luck. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next season. Unai Emery had a 22 (I think) game unbeaten run but we know what followed…
New post up.