Morning all.
A funny old weekend of football really and not in a comedic kind of way. Man City scored in the last minute of added time to secure a win over Wolves and Liverpool defeated Chelsea. Both games had moments of controversy.
Stones’ goal was disallowed on-field due to Bernardo Silva being in an offside position and in the goalkeeper’s line of vision but VAR thought differently and after a quick trip to the pitch-side monitor, Kavanagh overturned his original decision. Call me an old cynic but I bet if it had been Wolves scoring a winner in that game in the fashion, it wouldn’t have been allowed.
At Anfield, an incident very similar to the one which saw William Saliba sent off, occurred. Liverpool played a long ball out of defence into the path of Diogo Jota but as he went for the ball, Tosin Adarabioyo dragged him over. Was Tosin the last man? Yes, although there two another Chelsea defenders in the picture but both were behind Tosin! Sky Sports pundits said on Saturday that officials cannot get into the ‘is player x quick enough to get back’ when deciding on the last man rule which I totally understand but isn’t that exactly what happened yesterday when the other Chelsea defenders were actually behind Tosin when he committed the foul?
How can two almost identical incidents be dealt with in a different way? We probably know the answer but no-one wants to prove it. Frightened of opening a massive can of worms no doubt.
Oh, and the more I see the penalty incident when Raya was adjudged to have fouled Evanilson, the more it’s clear the decision was a wrong one. A penalty definitely won in my opinion.
That said, Arsenal’s performance from the start was shaky and seriously lacked creativity up front. I kind of felt sorry for Raheem Sterling who was given a rare start in the absence of Bukayo Saka. In hindsight, perhaps it would have been better to have left him on the pitch because of his pace, something we lacked until Gabriel Martinelli came on during the second half.
Now of course attentions turn to the Champions League for Mikel Arteta and his players and thankfully, there won’t be a British, or Australian official in sight. That type of performance needs to be dumped in history where it belongs and never to rear its ugly head again.
As Arsene Wenger used to say and Mikel Arteta now, the best way to move on from a bad game is to go out in the next and perform well. I’m not overly fussed about the Champions League but tomorrow’s match is at home and Arsenal need to put in a good performance. Does anyone want to see defence minded midfielders on the pitch? No, me neither.
Catch up in the comments.
any members that want to go . 2 tickets just gone on exchange lower tier north bank
I’d love to but wouldn’t be home until the early hours of the following morning…
VAR is ruining the game and the inconsistency gets worse every week that VAR becomes the talking point nearly after every game .For years I hear refs are against us no one else .I can see the many arguments and debates pointing this out but maybe it’s an age thing with me but I just don’t enjoy football anymore but supporting Arsenal will never waiver .
Update on Timber is that after missing all last season the smallest injury is taking much longer to heal than first thought and the irony was that he was playing so well in that CL game I was amazed at the time that he didn’t come out for the second half.
We have spent a lot of money these past three seasons but still need an Ollie Watkins type in the side .saka has been overplayed,we all saw that coming,Martinelli isn’t the same player since his injury, Jesus is an unnecessary luxury and Tossars is better as an impact sub. Havertz ran his heart out on Saturday but it was forlorn as the whole team where out of sorts .
One final thought on the three red cards , none where for violent play so Arteta has to address this and quick
Funny you should say that Kelsey because without VAR, Saliba wouldn’t have been sent off and City would have drawn with Wolves.
Still, my problem isn’t with technology but the buffoons operating it..
No other sport has the kind of problems football does.
Interesting from Arteta.
on if there is a plan to appeal Saliba’s red card:
He’s clearly referring to the Chelsea incident.