Morning all.
Just before Arsenal kicked off against Leicester City, I was outside hanging my washing on the line. The prop fell off and crashed into my head. I have a lump bigger than the one Chillwell suffered. I bet he doesn’t feel sorry for me so no, I don’t feel sorry for him.
At the same time as the men kicked off, more was at stake on the south coast. A win against Brighton and the women would win the WSL for the first time since 2012. They did. 4-0 and the best team in the country have a lot to celebrate. Well done to them.
Lucy Oliver officiated their match, no anti Arsenal from her. Unlike her husband who had a dreadful day with the whistle. His decision making was awful, especially the one to send off AMN.
11 v 11, who knows what might have happened but considering are awful performances away from home, we’d probably lost anyway. Sounds negative, defeatist and all that but sadly, it’s more of a reality. Had it not been for Bend Leno, the scoreline would have been much worse. He was the only real positive on yet another poor afternoon for Arsenal.
The only positive from yesterday is neither Utd or Chelsea seem fussed at securing top four. They drew in a pretty boring match from what I saw of it. If we can overcome Valencia in the Europa League, I really fancy our chances against Chelsea if they make it there too. Europa is Emery’s baby. He’s been then and done it, unlike in the Premier League where every game is physical. A real 95 minute battle. If he didn’t already know, he should by now. He hasn’t got the kind of players for a battle. If he doesn’t sort this squad out in the summer, he won’t last I’m sure. But I’ve a feeling he will, he’s certainly dropped enough hints. I liked his comments on departures. Looks like there could be a few. Good. Emery needs a balanced squad, not a group of individuals who often seem like they’ve never played together before.
Wenger made us soft, other clubs know we’re soft and all the time the officials are as they are, the rough and tumble tactics deployed against us will continue. I get hard tackling, I really do and for me, there’s nothing better than seeing a good old fashioned honest tackle. Mustafi is great at them, when he gets the ball first which doesn’t happen very often. Xhaka too but the same applies. Sokratis is just a brute who seems to love living on the edge.
Crazy as it is though, top four for us is still a possibility and looking at the remaining fixtures for us, Utd and Chelsea, anything could happen. It’s staggering to think that any one of the three clubs are still in the top six let alone the top four spot chase, or even third if Toots continue to play like they did on Saturday. A win at home against Brighton this coming weekend and we could be back into third. What a crazy season.
Thats my best effort. I know, it’s poor. I’ve caught the Arsenal first team virus….
See you in the comments…
You did well to string something together, Rico 🙂
Morning all.
Maybe Emery needs to sell quite a few, buy several, look for some hidden gems and hope a few youngsters step up to the mark as that’s about all we can hope for.
Afternoon everyone. Yes, we still have a possibility of securing top four, but we could have done that a long time ago. Now it’s not in our hands anymore and do the players believe in themselves? We are much better on paper than wolves, Palace and Leicester, so what’s going on? Fatigue? Poor tactics? Unmotivated players? We have many unanswered questions and some very nervy couple of weeks to look forward to..
I nearly didn’t Scott.. lol
I have more interest in the academy players coming through than most of our first team players. At least there’s a chance they will improve, most will have grown up with the club too.
Adk, if it wasn’t for the money, top four would mean very little. Not sure champions league football is ready for Arsenal. Or should that be the other way round… 😜
A good effort, thanks.Unlike that served up by the men,Leno excepted.If not for him we could have conceded 5 or 6.
Mr Oliver had a shocker,no way should AMN have been sent off, mind you,we were terrible from the word go anyway.
We still have a chance in the Europa,and still unbelievably of 4th place.
I thought this season was a write-off anyway so we still have hope,
Well done Rico and I`m glad you understand a hard tackle, so I`m sure you`ll understand then that if Spuds lose tomorrow night I will no doubt have the hardest tackle in Cornwall, even harder than my abs ! 😆
Same here Limey. I expected nothing from this season, other than the team looking more organised and stronger defensively but that kind of hasn’t happened, especially away from home.
With our first eleven all playing at home, we’ve looked really good at times so that’s a positive as is seeing the likes of AMN improve and the other younger players in the Europa.
Where the club go from here is the big question, and is Emery the man to take us there.
Always count on you to lower the tone Lc… lol
I didn’t see our game, but in the Manure game Rojo’s tackle was probably FAR worse than either of Maitland’s
LCM……Spurs have to lose tomorrow night buddy, I cannot afford to emigrate. They just cannot progress into the final, as finals, any team can win.
My days of going to a match are almost dead and buried after that performance by the referee yesterday.
We are pants at the moment, I know that, but no team deserves to be treated so harshly by a totally incompetent official such as Oliver. I hope he chokes on his coffee.
His wife, who officiated in our Ladies game against Brighton could teach him a thing or two.
If you watched the ManUre game after our match, you would have seen far more incidents warranting cards, but some never even got a foul given. Beggars belief how he can show his face after a totally biased attempt of officiating.
We certainly get the short end of the stick when it comes to fair play.
Dick, I saw all three and you’re spot on…
The FA need to get rid of Riley Vcc, I’m convinced it all stems from him.
You`re welcome, Rico, although I haven`t a clue what you`re on about ! 😆
Vics…………………………..would be the worst thing ever in football terms if they won it and if there trully is a god, then it wont happen.
Whilst I have no doubt that Emery, our head coach, will be consulted on which players need to be sold/released and on the summer signing targets that he would like his will not be the final word.
Unlike in the Wenger wilderness years, there is a hierarchy above him in place whose job it is to make strategic decisions affecting the playing staff.
Ultimately, Emery will be handed a squad of players and it will be his job to coach them to play in the style best suited to their talents.
I don’t know who decided to take Suarez on loan, but whoever it was I sincerely hope he doesn’t repeat that kind of gaffe in the future.
Denis Suarez seems to have bid us adios…
I kind of understand the criticism everywhere on Oliver, but imagine players weren’t so eager to fall down at the slightest touch, or with no contact at all?
Let’s point the finger at the real culprit here, the cheating scumbag from Leicester who “drew” the foul that wasn’t there.
How are officials really supposed to get it right when these pricks are so adept at diving??
scott, I see where your coming from, regarding diving, but the said player in question is renowned for it, so why didn’t the Referee account for such a player????
VCC, they can only make a call based on what they see, and these guys are too good at it.
I do get your point but maybe they err on the side of caution-by that I mean they don’t want to label a player a cheat unless they’re 100% certain.
It puts them in a terrible situation.
When Mislintat left I was worried about losing such a respected figure who’d already proved his worth.
When Sanlehi and Emery signed Suarez I think I said that ‘my opinion on our future under these people will be summed up by how well Suarez plays for us.’ Or something similar.
£6.6m he cost us.
Hobart, that would’ve covered the pay rise Ramsey was after.
Very disappointed in the entire situation surround Suarez as he had no real chance to even show what he could do.
Then again, he must have been very average in training.
Matt Law of the Telegraph, what a useless scribbling wanker.
Based his whole article around what he’s read on the Internet, nothing original, all lifted from other sources, reminded me why I don’t buy newspapers anymore, full of shit…
The amount of times crap refereeing and cheating has cost us really put a bad taste in the mouth. This time we probably would have lost anyway , but still sick of it .Why don’t they use video evidence to punish these cheats?????
Our gutless team of chokers haven’t earned their wages this week imo 9 pts dropped 9 goal conseeded. They should take last week wage from them and give it to to the Arsenal ladies.They unlike the so call men!!! Actually show bottle and play for the
Badge. In fact the men should go to a couple of the lady’s games to learn a thing or two.