Morning all.
Mikel Arteta held his pre-match press conference yesterday in which he said he’d “only be satisfied” if Arsenal are given the two points Lee Mason deprived his team of on Saturday. We already know the PGMOL has apologised to Arsenal after Mason failed to do his job but as said a couple of days ago, what good is an apology. It’s worthless.
After analysing the images, we [had] a huge anger and disappointment because that wasn’t a human error – that was a big, big, big [case of] not understanding the job. That’s unacceptable. That cost us two points. That’s not going to be restored, so we’re going to have to find those two points somewhere else in the league. I will only be satisfied if they give me the two points back, which is not going to be the case. I appreciate and I think they were really sincere, open and genuine apologies and explanations, which is really good. But it doesn’t take away the fact that we have two less points than we should have on the table. Mikel Arteta
Finding two points between now and May is impossible. I actually don’t know why the PL can’t just chalk off Toney’s goal and award Arsenal the three points. Same for Brighton who were also denied a victory because of “human error”. There’s a difference between inconsistency in decision making from game to game and cut and dry, or blatant errors. We’re not talking about an arm being in a natural or unnatural position when handling the ball in the box, a big toe being in front of the last defender or even whether a penalty should or shouldn’t be awarded, we’re talking about two huge errors which had the offside lines been applied/applied correctly, a different result would have been different.
Anyway, that’s not going to happen, so all Arsenal can do is focus on what’s ahead and picking up as many points as possible from the remaining seventeen fixtures. The pundits will tell us that tonight’s fixture and result is the most important for Arsenal but it’s not, not by a long way. Every game is equally important.
This same fixture last season was possibly the best a Mikel Arteta team had played since his return to the club as manager. Arsenal didn’t deserve to lose but guess what? Yes, abysmal decisions made by the officials made sure we did. We could easily have been two, maybe three goals ahead by half-time instead of the 1-0 it was. We could, perhaps should have had a penalty when Ederson fouled Martin Odegaard.
The Emirates was rocking, the players were performing.
The second half was all about VAR. Ten minutes after the restart, Bernado Silva went down inside the box, supposedly tripped by Granit Xhaka. Referee Stuart Attwell said no penalty but VAR intervened and instead of sticking to his original decision, Attwell decided to award City the spot kick.
We could have taken the lead almost immediately but Gabriel Martinelli missed his umpteenth chance of the game and then when Gabriel was given his marching orders, City always looked the more likely to score. They did. Three minutes into added time.
Fast forward a year, Arsenal were beaten again by Man City but this time the defeat came at The Etihad in the FA Cup.
I think we could have got much more out of the game. We had big situations in the game and we didn’t put them away. We can take a lot of positives, I think the way we approached the game and competed. It is really difficult to win against this team but we went head to head with them. In the big moments, in big matches, you have the make the difference. That is how you win these games. Mikel Arteta.
Arsenal played City without Martin Odegaard, Oleksandr Zinchenko, William Saliba, Gabriel Martinelli and Aaron Ramsdale in the starting eleven but I strongly suspect all will start tonight. Unless of course, Mikel Arteta believes Kieran Tierney, Leandro Trossard or Takehiro Tomiyasu are better suited to face the opposition. Or any other player for that matter.
Whether or not the manager is close to changing the team around was something he was asked during his press conference:
That’s more determined by results but for us, it’s more about performances and what players have given us to take us to the position we are in today. They deserve opportunities. Obviously we are looking to give players opportunities that they deserve. You talked about Leo – we’re talking about anybody who has had minutes in this league. There will be changes – it will happen and very soon.
Logic says changes will come soon and for any manager, they need to come before injury forces them. A number of our players have already played a lot of fixtures and their bodies must be feeling it. Perhaps the last few performances are a reflection of that because let’s be honest, the team’s not been at its best. Not since the FA Cup defeat at the hands of tonight’s opposition.
If Mikel Arteta’s players get their mojo back, I fancy a home win, especially with 58,000 fans behind the team. At least we know Guardiola’s team will not sit back and defend. The game should be entertaining, open and all about who takes their chances. I hope we can take more than them.
Catch up in the comments.
Would love to see a great result and performance not just by the Arsenal players but by the officials for a change. Brandishing a yellow card for the diving pretty boy cheat Grealish early on would be helpful.
Morning Rico and all.
The only positive from the PGMOL apology if you can call it that, is Arteta can use it to fire up the players against Man City tonight.
I feel Arteta was let down by the board or the owners for staying quiet and not making a statement to the media to show support for him and the players.
There needs to be changes tonight, not to the personnel, but to the way we play. We have to be much quicker at getting the ball from the back to the front. The slow way in which we work the ball out from the back allows the opposing defenders ample time to get into position, this was blatantly obvious against Brentford on Saturday. By the time we had passed the ball numerous times between central defenders, goal keeper and midfielders there was a line of five defenders on the edge of their box and the rest of the eleven waiting patient to break up our approach play.
There is little sense in trying to get crosses into the box when so many defenders are waiting for them.
So basically what I’m saying is stop farting about in our own half and use some pace along with crisper passing.
As the officials are going to be wary of making more bad decisions, we need to dribble the ball into the box to invite tackles which could result in penalties.
As will they , I fully expect a VAR decision to rule against us tonight , It’s sods law that having been proven to be affected badly by previous decisions . Tonight will be borderline but will fall against us . They will fall over backwards not to look like they are trying to make amends.
I would start Trossard and drop Saka as he is too easy to read
I don’t expect any changes this evening, tonight’s game will bear no resemblance to Everton or Brentford, it’ll be very technical, like a chess match, it should suit the team that was robbed at Goodison Park (goal-kick not a corner) and last weekend (off-side 3 times in one phase) this game is the perfect opportunity to get us back on track despite those in the media dribbling with anticipation of an Arsenal collapse.
Drop Saka Geoff, have your been on the 4X…?
As far as VAR is concerned, we’ve gotta forget it and that’s how Arteta will form his narrative, we can’t aford to feel sorry for ourselves or it’ll affect tonight.
Gotta go for the jugular tonight.
Afternoon all.
I think we’ll see the same 11, maybe Leandro Trossard in for Martinelli..
Perhaps the FA, pgmol etc want City to fail in their challenge for another PL trophy bearing in mind what’s going on.
I just hope for fairness.
Dave, wouldn’t it just. He’s one of the biggest cheats in the game, yet doesn’t need to be.
Ornstein reckons Partey is injured and won’t play tonight. (HITC)
Arsenal XI: Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Odegaard, Jorginho, Xhaka, Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli
Subs: Turner, Tierney, White, Kiwior, Holding, Trossard, Vieira, Nelson, Cozier-Duberry
Evening rico, all. Thanks for reminding me of that dreadful end to the City game last season, lol. No, I hadn’t forgotten, it was so unjust for the way we played.
We will really learn tonight how good some of our players are. Thinking Saliba, Tomiyasu etc.
Evening Andrew, just one of many poor decisions against us.
What a clanger…
How many fouls on Saka allowed then?
Silva should have been booked by now, that’s for sure.
So should Ederson for time wasting.
He has now rico!
He has Andrew.
1-1. Really surprised that penalty was given.
As it was given, for foul just after ball lost, maybe a second yellow😀
I haven’t missed Partey so far, so that must be a very good compliment to Jorginho
Excellent penalty by Saka in the face of delays and gamesmanship by their ‘ keeper.
What was Tomiyasu thinking about?
Did our heads drop after the City goal? Not on your life!
Yep, the Prime pundits are just saying similar. Silva and Ederson could easily be off by now. Clichy said it would kill the game?? Who cares, it’s what both deserved.
Jorginho has done pretty well I reckon. He’s not as explosive as Partey but he’s had a good first half.
After Martinez’s penalty antics, I would have loved Ederson getting a 2nd yellow for his pointing. Don’t know how they get away with it at penalties. And of course half a dozen City players round the ref must be an FA charge?
Wrong colour shirt for an FA charge for crowding the ref.
Getting spikey now, after the Haaland offside.
We’ve gifted them all three goals. Dreadful mistakes that you can’t get away with against a team like City.
Nearly from Eddie!
Yep, errors cost us big time..
Night guys.
Night Rico will comment tomorrow.
It’s no disgrace losing to Man C, a few wayward passed cost us but a much better performance than the last 2 weeks. bad mistake by Tomiyasu leading to their first goal but at the same time I wonder if Ramsdale should have been closer to the goal line.
wonder when Arteta will give Kiwior a run.
Edu needs to fire up the jet and start looking for a real striker.
We should be able to win the next few matches.
The 4x tasted nice, but I still would have started Saka on the bench, he is becoming easy to read.
Morning Rico. Saka was our best player again last night. They had to repeatedly foul him in attempts to stop him. We were the better team in the first half but once again failed to convert that into goals but never hooked it up in the second half. They, on the other hand, did.
Silly mistakes cost us. We have a wasteful Eddie up front who missed 3 really decent chances and they had Haaland, who didn’t.
Morning Adam. Sorry, I was scribbling. Similar to your views really.
New post up now