Morning all.
Arsene Wenger held his press conference yesterday morning ahead of our FA Cup against clash with Notts Forest and again we’ll be without Sead Kolasinac, Nacho Monreal, Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey and Laurent Koscielny. Sky Sports report that Granit Xhaka has picked up an injury too but there’s no hint on how long he’ll be out for.
Reading between the lines, the Frenchman is planning on playing a second string team on Sunday before selecting a stronger squad to face Chelsea in midweek. I’d have thought his priority would have been the other way around although the way Notts Forest are playing, perhaps he believes his Europa team will be strong enough. I’m not so sure though as 1) we’re away from home and 2) in a cup fixture, league form goes out the window. Forest will be desperate for a victory, victory which might just kick start a better run of performances and results during second half of the season for them in the Championship.
Wenger of course will be absent from the touchline for both fixtures and the trip to The Vitality Stadium next weekend as he’s been banned by the FA for his criticism of Mike Dean after the West Brom game and I fully expect that ban to be increased having labelled Anthony Taylor’s decision to award Hazard a penalty in our last match. ‘Farcial’ He labelled that decision, farcical I’d label his ban too as I don’t know what he said which wasn’t true on either occasion.
Yet again last night there was another wrongly awarded penalty decision, this one for Liverpool against Everton in the FA Cup which knocked the Toffees out of the competition. Liverpool are the team people love to watch these days apparently. Klopp with his effervescent personality on the sidelines, the fab four going forward and of course, they’ve just landed the most expensive defender in history to cure their defensive problems. What is there not to love about the Scouse club eh? Everything imo. The fact that Everton were awarded a soft penalty in the Merseyside league fixture made last nights error acceptable, well, that’s the media spin but it doesn’t. Two wrongs do not make a right, period! Not only was the penalty soft but referee Bobby Madley showed great weakness when he failed to deal with a nasty incident which could have seriously injured Firmino in a similar fashion to what happened to Mathieu Debuchy. The shove over the barriers on Debuchy, which put him out of the game for several months, went unpunished, as did Holgate for his on the Brazilian although he was lucky as he escaped unscathed. It’ll be interesting to see what the FA do about that, and the the melee which followed.
I know the match last night has nothing to do with Arsenal but it’s more evidence to support Arsene Wenger’s claims that the standard of officiating in England is poor, really poor. He knows it, we know all know it and it’s little wonder they’ll be no English representative at the World Cup in the summer.
On Sunday we have Jon Moss officiating our match together with his team consisting of Sian Massey-Ellis and Edward Smart. Kevin Friend is the fourth official And I bet he’ll be pleased knowing that Arsene Wenger won’t be in his ear all game…..
Plenty of the younger players were out training with the first team yesterday. New signing Mavropanos, Nelson, Sheaf, Nketiah, Willock, Osei-Tutu and Dasilva were all involved. Bielik is back too I think As is Jeff which is good news for both I reckon we could see a few of them starting on Sunday too, although it’s probably too soon for Mavropanos who’s more likely to play for the under 23’s against Liverpool on the same day.
Finally, Xavier Amaechi signed his first professional contract with the club yesterday on the same day he turned seventeen. He’s been with Arsenal since he was twelve and one day, probably long after Wenger has gone, we might see the winger bombing up and down the touchline for the first team. Who knows eh…
Have a good day guys, let’s hope there’s a few FA Cup surprises today, we might need them if were to lift the big trophy again…
good morning!
Morning Rico, it’s like a Sunday around here, really quiet out. Good post btw.
Jon Moss eh?
He’s a bit of a dope, not one of the worst but still liable to give a soft penalty or two and not to Arsenal, so expect Forest to get a spot kick. We’ll need at least 3 goals to progress because Mike Riley is sure to be out for revenge, so Moss will be under instructions to stitch us up.
Not sure if Forest are a very physical team or still try to play a bit of football?
Morning Jm, Kev and all.
Moss is rubbish isn’t he?
He doesn’t fill me with a lot of confidence Rico…
You have to wonder what was the point of full time professional referees?
You don’t have them in the Bundesliga.
You don’t have them in Ligue Un.
You don’t have them in La Liga.
But we have them in Serie A and that’s where we’ve had corruption among referees…
Maybe a referee being part-time or amateur, with their income coming from outside the game, maybe that makes them less likely to be corrupted or even influenced?
Some referees are human, right!! Has anyone ever questioned which referees support which teams. I mean, say if a referee supported Manu (no names mentioned as he is retired) then it would be difficult for that referee to award perhaps a last minute penalty against said team. I think all referees should be made to declare publily which team they support and they should not be given matches involving “their” team. Of course that would not stop MD hating Arsenal. Thoughts
Morning Rico and all. One of the problems with Riley and the referees is that they ask for understanding by claiming it’s a difficult job, everyone makes mistakes and they’re only human. But then, when they make glaring errors they retreat into their organisation, get the PL to treat them as if they are untouchable and behave like Nazis.
None of them fill me will confidence Kev. I once thought Oliver was decent but even he is prone to make hideous decisions..
Morning Adam, agree and both of our last two penalties against us, neither ref saw the incident in it’s entirety and were guessing. If they can see it, they can’t give it…
Paddywack, I think they have to declare which team they support but that’s not to say they are telling the truth. It’s not just who they support though, it’s clubs they have history with and who they don’t like. Or something simple as who they don’t want to win on the day..
Good post Rico.
Just a remark of little relevance! It was lovely to pick up the paper and see that there are two teams playing at Highbury today, one of which play in red shirts with whit arms, as their home kit.
Ah! Those were the days!
Come on Fleetwood!
Tomorrow, Forest at the moment are absolute rubbish. They have a couple of half decent players but they play like strangers not a team, so I’m told. Long gone is the football of Clough and Taylor. It should be a fairly straight forward win for the Arsenal, but nothing is ever certain with our players, is it?
The lack of Wenger on the touchline will make little difference to whatever team ha sends out as he never ‘coaches’ our players from the sidelines. The only real benefit is that the fourth official will have a less bent ear!
Morning all. Another cold one.
Thanks Wavy, didn’t Fleetwood do well too, they’ll enjoy the replay at the King Power, it’ll bring in a lot of money for the club too..
I watched. Bit of Forest v Leeds last weekend, they were poor and goodness knows how it ended 0-0.
Barca have got their man. £142 million for Coutinho…
Paddywack :- team A is playing team B who are 1 point behind team C . The referee declared that he supports team C. Then he gives a dodgy penalty to team A . and slows down team B . . He never actually refs his team but is just as effective in helping them out.
In these days of global air travel why not have European refs doing Prem matches and send English refs to Europe. They could travel previous night. Might stop the bias.
I think who a referee supports has very little influence on how he officiates, but having a poor past history with a club, manager or any particular players is more relevant…
Also certain managers intimidate officials more than others.
Most referees want to officiate in the big games and in the big stadiums, so they don’t want to upset Liverpool or ManU and as most refs are northerners and those are the biggest stadiums to them after say Wembley.
Afternoon all and thank`s Rico.
I like Paddywhack`s idea of neutral Reffs from other countries, although I once played in a game where we had a neurtal Eskimo Reff, straight from kick off he started to dig up the white centre spot and get his fishing rod out !………………………………
Evening Rico and the House.
Another damp and dreary day down south it dosn’t change much do’s it.
It looks like Bodymoor Heath was the place to be today.
Our u18;s and our u16’s were both away to Aston Villa.
At halftime the U18’s game was goalless but in the 2nd half something very strange took place..
The cry went up Its a Penalty to ARSENAL not once but twice.
Trae Coyle scored both to give us a 2-0 win but it should have been more.
In the U16 game we were winning 4-1 , Villa then went ahead 6-4.
Not to be otdone the boys scored 2 late goals for the game to finish 6-6
Mavididi cut short his loan with PNE and rejoined Charlton.
On 27mins he scored his first pro goal in the `-0 win.
Evening Rick, I saw that re Mavididi, really pleased for him. 6-6 sounds like a game against Liverpool… lol
Under 23’s play tomorrow don’t they? Wonder if the new guy will play..
I may have asked you before Rick, but how far down south are you?
1-0 win.
Let Coq Monster Never mind the ref I want to know if the Eskimo Ref caught any fish!!!!!!
Didn’t Arsenal draw 6-6 with Leicester City in the Old First Division?
I’m too young to remember that one….
Adam told me about it…
Good to see the U16’s defending like the 1st team…
Cheeky
142 millions for a player who was bought for 8.5 millions. .wow.
It makes Arsene not spending in previous transfer windows looks even dummer. .
Certainly his refusal to spend the extra odd millions on quality players has fired back…all so well for a financial genius!
Bit like Anelka paying for London Colney but that was in his first lifetime.
Morning all.
Those days are long gone Potter, he couldn’t even get a quid for Sanogo..
New post up now.