Morning all.
It was nasty, probably not intended but regardless, when VAR upgraded Auba’s yellow card to red, I wasn’t at all surprised. I’m not for one minute condoning his challenge but again, where is the consistency in the decisions be made on a match day? Why wasn’t Zaha booked for diving in the box? Why were so many Crystal Palace players allowed to escape punishment time after time after committing a foul? If an Arsenal player gets booked so be it but there simply cannot be one rule for us and another rule for the opposition. Except it seems there is.
Later in the day, Liverpool’s Andy Robertson’s studs-up lunge on Japhet Tanganga wasn’t dealt with by VAR, the decision to wrongly award Liverpool a throw in before Firmino scored escaped review too which goes to show there’s a problem with the way VAR is being run. I dislike both clubs but I believe in fairness and honesty.
Back to our game and Torreira not appearing for the second half was hardly a surprise as Palace players appeared to target him for their rotational fouling. A muscular injury suggested Mikel Arteta after the game, one which I hope recovers well and quick because Arsenal aren’t quite the same without him. Guendouzi did all right, but there’s not another player in our squad who can do what our little midfielder does. We need another. Thank goodness the players have seven days for the bruises to go down. Aubameyang will have longer as he sits the next three out. I thought Arteta did the right thing after the game by offering an apology, something very few managers do or have done.
I thought it was a scrappy game which for 30 odd minutes we totally controlled as far as possession goes. Palace lacked any kind of imagination in attack and seemed quite happy to defend. Perhaps Hodgson had seen the way our players are struggling to keep going physically for ninety minutes so he and his players were happy to let us tire before raising their game.
The biggest disappointment was that during the 30 minutes or so when we were in total control, just the one goal came our way. A good goal I must say with some precision passing between Luiz, Ozil and Lacazette before Auba tucked the ball away nicely. Palace equalised thanks to a huge chunk of lucky pie. A deflection which totally wrong footed Leno. We’d defended well all game apart from that very moment and it cost us two points but then so did our inability to score more goals. Sokratis cleared one off the line to save the point. Pepe hit the post late in the game, thanks to the fingertips of the Palace keeper but Lacazette couldn’t bury the rebound.
For the last goodness knows how many years, Arsenal have been up there with the worst for conceding goals. We could usually score a goal or two, but often gave away more than we managed to get ourselves. Since Mikel Arteta has arrived our defending has begun to improve but the goals, or rather lack of them, is being highlighted. When we’re controlling a game as we did yesterday for much of the first half, we simply have to be more creative and score more goals. The emphasis being on the creative. We can get the ball into the last third but then all too often there’s little potency, a killer pass, a pinpoint cross or a goal out of nothing etc. We saw it once yesterday, but once isn’t enough. Great teams do that more than once in ninety minutes. In my opinion, Ozil isn’t doing it, Pepe isn’t and Lacazette, despite his work rate, just isn’t ruthless enough in front of goal.
But you know what, with ten men and Palace enjoying their best time of the game, I thought we defended well and were really unlucky in the end not to nick the winner. We stood up to Palace too and didn’t let their ‘bullying’ tactics push us into submission. In fact we dished out our own fair share instead. The ’soft’ label is slowly losing its validity, the critics of our defending are gradually being silenced too. Our game is far from perfect, of course it is because old stones simply cannot be turned into diamonds regardless of how hard they are polished but we look better, more organised and certainly more committed.
Mikel Arteta and his team can’t fix everything at once and certainly not in just a few weeks but the profess were making is clearly evident.
Now we’re going to be without our main goal threat for three matches. Two of those are away from home against Chelsea and Bournemouth. The other is at home against Sheffield Utd next weekend.
Well, as one door closes……
See you in the comments guys.
Morning Rico and all. I guess that anybody who believed that VAR would, in some way, eliminate refereeing errors and bias is now thinking again. The inconsistencies are still there. The favouritism is still there and as the evidence of the past few days shows, Riley is still fixing the results by employing those who make the VAR decisions. Corruption doesn’t always need to be financially fuelled. Not directly of course, but influencing games in the way that Riley and his acolytes are doing is going to backfire. The referee yesterday, Tierney, booked 2 Arsenal players for diving at home against Huddersfield last season, yet Zaha did the same yesterday and nothing happened, despite his reputation being well-established and despite us seemingly suffering from his antics time and time again. Ayew commuted 7 fouls I am told, yet was allowed to carry on while our infringements were immediately carded. I do agree though that Auba deserved his red card. This denying of the rules, this lack of consistency and outright bias is I fear, exactly what Riley wants and the way that he has set out to bend results to his will. The Robertson red-card that never was (in the evening game) merely highlights the fact and I have seen the same player commit that foul many times with zero consequences. Liverpool don’t need these favours really but it’s hard not to believe that Riley and whoever is behind him, decided that they should be given every help to winning the PL title this season. Having said that, they are a brilliant team.
We probably would have lost yesterday’s game under Emery so we’ll take the point and I’ve little doubt that Mikel will hammer home the importance of converting superiority into goals. Roy is not really the old dodderer he appears. He is a master of the black arts on the pitch and the consistent falling over that his players do whenever there’s an opposition player near them generally results in a free ball into the box where it all becomes a lottery.
There is a tremendous story behind what is happening with Riley, the refs and VAR but I doubt whether any journalist has the balls to really strip away the fog and tell it as it is. The financial implications for the PL would be just too disastrous, but the more questions that are asked might at least bring an end to Mike Riley and the PGMOL and that would be a start towards establishing a more even playing-field and sorting this VAR business out once and for all.
Good day Rico.
I think a certain amount of the tiredness, affecting us in the second half of games, is due to the way we are playing the ball out from the back. I have watched both Man City and Liverpool recently, both use the tactic but do so a little further up the pitch than we do. The centre back’s starting position is ahead of the penalty box, they do not allow themselves to be pushed back towards the goal line, nor do they get trapped on the touchline. Rather they will hit a long ball to ease the pressure.
The way we play tends to draw our midfielders deeper thus opening the gap between them and our forwards which in turn puts more onus on all our players to cover the gaps.
Simply put, we need to move the game forward by fifteen yards or so.
Morning Adam, all.
It’s going to take someone steely to put his/her name against an article about Riley and his team but if done properly, evidenced based, there is a huge one out there to be written. I guess the time it would take to do and the fear of subsequent action is enough to put anyone off.
I’m actually surprised Untold Arsenal haven’t written something.
One thing I was interested to see yesterday was the way we were defending freekicks into our penalty area. The way the defensive line was moved a few yards forward thus greatly raising the risk of the offensive players straying off-side and giving a clear area for Leno to work in.
a simple tactic, but effective.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for a journo to expose the iniquities of VAR. Controversies and conspiracy theories sell newspapers.
Nothing will ever be allowed to sully the Greatest Show of Earth, or affect the millions generated by it for all those interested parties.
I believe that I read on Untold a few years back when they produced video evidence of PGMOL inconsistency ( corruption ) that the very people that wish to cover the Premier League have to sign a gagging order for any real criticism.
Even Alan Green ( I can’t stand him ) fell foul of it and was severely censured for critcising the way things were run .
Green said of his career as a sports commentator: “Apart from one time in 1984, I’ve never applied for a television job.” Green said that he told a BSkyB executive, who had floated the idea of him moving from radio to the satellite channel, that he is too outspoken to work for Sky TV. The Sky executive implored Green to “always accentuate the positive”. Green told him that his role as a commentator was “to tell the truth, not to act as a propagandist.”
Untold who I have always found to be sychophantic laid out about a season full of evidence and I believe sent it to mainstream media , it was ignored.
Wenger defended himself with video evidence and was never once forgiven by Riley , The PGMOL ae too powerful and unaccountable but whilst they provide the controversy that sells TV packages they will remain unfortunately.
Hi Rico and all May be what we need is our fans at home games start a chance up about the refs and VAR after all the one thing that the premier league will not like is bad publicity and make the refs feel intimidated to referee arsenal at home like other clubs lets face it the premier league will never listen to internet site but when its TV /Pay Tv then they start listening
From Untold’s archives :-
« The notion that refereeing in the Premier League is balanced and fair is itself a conspiracy theory
Gunning for the PGMOL: time for Mr Wenger to say clearly that refereeing here is not fit for purpose
By Blacksheep
In the last week Arsene Wenger has been the focus of much press attention on account of what he has had to say about the standard of refereeing in the Premier League.
In the last decade Untold Arsenal has ploughed a sometimes lonely but determined furrow in highlighting the ineptitude of some of the decision-making made by members of the PGMOL, and in that spirit I thought I’d write in support of pour manager’s position but argue that he should go much further.
In the wake of Mike Dean’s highly dubious (to say the least) decision to award a penalty against Calum Chambers for handball and Anthony Taylor’s (at best) inconsistent performance in the Chelsea home game the press have been quick turn on the Frenchman who has done so much to improve football at the top level in this country.
ADVERTISING
Jack Pitt-Brooke in the Independent accused him of hypocrisy and of being myopic in not seeing the faults within his own team and using referees’ decisions to deflect criticism. Amy Lawrence in the Grauniad decided to run with the tried and trusted critique of Arsenal’s inability to defend.
Jeremy Wilson in the Torygraph warned that Wenger ‘risks further censure’ for adding yet more criticism to his ‘outburst’ after the West Brom game, in calling Taylor’s decision to award Chelsea a penalty as ‘farcical’.
Wenger went on to say: “Referee decisions influence the game,” he said. “But nobody talks about it. So that means nothing will change.”
I watched the game on New Year’s Eve from the comfort of my sofa and thought a draw was fair even if the penalty was a travesty.
As for the Chelsea game, Tony and I chatted about this and more on the way home from the game on Wednesday. It had been a good game of football, Chelsea under Conte do not ‘park the bus’ and the match was often open and entertaining. Yes we could have defended better and on another night might have been more effective and blessed with better luck.
But both games were ultimately determined not by the quality of Arsenal’s finishing or defending; they were decided by the decisions made by the match officials and Arsene Wenger is perfectly entitled to point this out. We can debate the nuances of whether Moses fouled Maitland-Niles or whether Hazard exaggerated the contact made with him or not, but it changes nothing: Taylor gave a penalty for one of those incidents and not the other. Hazard converted the spot kick and equalized. If a penalty had been given for the foul on AMN and (if Alexis had scored) it might have ended 3-2. On the 31st while WBA may have felt aggrieved to get nothing from a game in which they played well, not penalizing Chambers would have left the score 0-1.
There is, in particular, no real debate about whether the way PGMO runs things is a suitable way to organise refereeing – given that there are alternatives. Likewise there is not much debate about the alternative ways of running VAR, nor is there any debate about why the rest of Europe is getting so concerned about match fixing and England is not. It may well be that the bulk of match fixing takes place in the east of the continent but that does not automatically mean that some of the organisations involved are not moving into the west.
https://untold-arsenal.com/referees-video-evidence
Off topic here:
How about a seat in the House of Lords, £300 per day and all you need to do is sign in – a bit like signing on at the labour exchange – then spend some time in a posh subsidised restaurant or bar full honourable members?
Sounds good to me and 800 members of the House of Lords can’t be wrong!
Threats of reform are routinely brushed under the carpet.
So why not put them on the minimum wage, that’ll soon cut the numbers down?
Morning Cicero. I’m sure tiredness plays it’s part as the match goes on but yesterday was about the first 30 mins. If the players were already tired then one has to wonder what kind of a physical state did Emery leave this squad…
To understand Mike Riley just look at his performance at Old Trafford when the Invincibles lost their unbeaten run, nothing else needs to be said!
1.03pm Potter. That explains a lot.
Hi Geoff.
Afternoon everybody, thanks Rico.
I’ve been away for a bit, just caught up. I’ve missed some brilliant posts and some equally good comments over the last few weeks but I still enjoy reading them.
I do agree with all your comments today but ……..I know this is a bug bear of mine , some of our players go to ground far to easily! Not so much yesterday , apart from Sokratis pretending to be elbowed, but we have a lot of players who throw themselves on the floor. Guendouzi is the worst but Xhaka and a few others do it. I really like Torreira but he is a typical South American the way he rolls around on the floor.
I Know other teams do it but we are getting a name for ourselves now and I hate it.
Refs are biased, but we are not helping ourselves, they look at previous games on video and know the culprits. They must struggle to see if somebody has actually been pushed in the back, or thrown themselves on the floor like some Arsenal players clearly do.
Thank god for these comments I thought I was crazy all these years. And I echo sentiments that such a movement has been going on since Wenger times. Our 3 PL titles should be the equivalent of 9, and I’m only half joking here.
Can someone be so kind as to offer a reason why they are targeting Arsenal though? Could it have started when we became one of the frontrunners for bringing in foreign players? If so how did it change when the other teams followed suit and with a lot more money to exacerbate the problem further too? Or is there some secret referee kitty we have not agreed to play ball to? After all, in the face of the avalanche of TV money and sponsorships flowing into English football, the referees have not got a slice of this pie right?
Hi Mike. We don’t help ourselves in some cases, I agree but perhaps some of that has come about from us not being given fouls when clearly they have been. The elbow on Sokratis was non existent but nothing as bad as Zaha for the pen. Lol Also, I think Sokratis was craftily trying to wind the clock down.
David, I think it all goes way back to when we didn’t get relegated. Others here might know more though..
Hi Rico, Yeah It must be frustrating not being given free kicks, but it doesn’t help our cause when we do pretend.
Re Zaha …… Not only was he diving, but cynical fouling as well. He is a cheating turd.
Torreira was great yesterday again, He had more possession than anyone else. He was fouled a lot, I just wish he would get up and get on with it though.
I’m not in disagreement Mime, I really don’t like see players going to ground unnecessarily. I’m going to defend Torreira though, certainly for yesterday as he got kicked to pieces. If we lose him now for a few games we’ll miss him him and will have a Palace to thank for that.
Agree re Zaha. I’m so glad we didn’t sign him.
Yes we will really miss Torreira. Ayew kept smacking in to the back of him yesterday, but I think the clash in our own box when he landed on his back did the damage.
Fingers crossed for him. I hope it’s nothing serious…
Mavropanos is linked with a move away on loan..
Crikey. That might leave us a bit short on cover at the back if Mustafi goes. Although Holding is fit now I think.
Mike, on the question of simulation the King of Diving actually plays for Crystal Palace, in general I think if you are an Arsenal player and you are constantly being fouled and not getting a response from the referee, you either retaliate and end up getting booked yourself or you exaggerate a foul in order to get a free kick.
If Arsenal players do it more than anyone else it’s probably because we are fouled more than anyone else, without any protection from the referee.
Yes Rico, I am so glad that we didn’t waste millions on Zaha, he’s almost 28 and his value is going to nosedive over the next few months.
Must be a defender coming in I’d have thought.
Absolutely Kev and to be fair, an £80 million player shouldn’t be waking up still trying to find his way out of AMN pocket..
Yep, can’t argue there Kev……. Trouble is we are crap actors ! Zaha is a master at conning refs. Arsenal players flop on the ball and give free kicks away for hand ball.
Nothing will change until refs start booking cheats like Zaha for proper diving like they are supposed to. Even a retrospective card after the game when it has been looked at.
Funny how in the home match, VAR were quick to review the booking and no penalty decision from Mike Dean, overturned it and awarded Zaha a penalty. Same when Dean allowed our winning goal that day only to see it overturned.
Yet no review and subsequent penalisation when Zaha did dive…
Morning all.
For a few years I said you don’t want VAR, because it is never used the correct way and still leaves itself vulnerable to human “error” or interpretation.
It’s not the technology that’s the problem, it’s the way it’s manipulated.
Time is wasted every game and for what-a decision that is still wrong too often so I always ask what’s the point???
The hope is that because it’s so open and exposed, any concerns with cheating or bias will be exposed to all but it just doesn’t work that way, and it never has.
I’ve seen comments over the years that Rugby Union, for example, use it the right way.
Well let’s be honest, Union players are always respectful of officials, and because of that, seemingly the fans have the same approach so even an obvious error just isn’t discussed as aggressively as in Football and League but the clangers do still happen.
Apparently our A League uses it the right way according to the media, as the ref gets a chance to explain his decision after the game and at least the onfield ref does look at the screen and make the call but it doesn’t change the fact that we still get some awful decisions.
Isn’t that the reason it’s brought in, to stop those absolute shockers??
Get rid of it or use it when the human element is totally eliminated, imo.
Scott, in cricket the batsmen was always given the benefit of the doubt, but with the Decision Review System that has gone out of the window. TV reviews just cannot handle such arcane ideas.
In football we have become slaves to all powerful VAR, we should stop calling the on-field official by the title referee and just accept that he is subordinate to the bloke in Stockley Park and just acknowledge that he is the puppet with the whistle.
We are going to have to put up with a failing system until the season’s end, but wholesale changes must be made during the summer.
1 ) If the on-field official us in doubt about one of his own decisions, he should review it on the pitch-side monitor.
2 ) The “Clear and obvious error” option should be used to alert the on-field official, who should review that error on the pitch-side monitor.
3 ) Only line calls should be reviewed and judged by the VAR. In the case of offside decisions the benefit of the doubt should be given to the attacking player. Offside should not be called where there is not clear daylight between attacker and defender.
4 ) All subjective calls should be decided by the on-field official by reference to the pitch-side monitor.
The only part of the new system that actually works well is the goal line technology, the rest is unfit for purpose.
Question, can the referee ignore VAR and just go with his gut instinct or does he have to accept being overruled by one of Mike Riley’s robots?
Also, I wonder if Mike Riley is always at Stockley Park, looking over the shoulder of the 5th official and influencing his call?
Well, maybe just for Arsenal games…
Kev, I always understood that the referee’s decision was final. Unless the laws of the game have been rewritten he can’t be overruled.
12.21 Kev. I think that’s where the pitch side monitor comes into play in other leagues. VAR advise the referee who then makes his own decision based on what he sees on the screen. I think that’s the major flaw in the PL and why so many are questioning why we’re not using it.
The answer imo is clear but I doubt Riley will get away with not using it next season.
HI All What we need is more shows on tv / pay tv with a section called what’s your decision were they get fans to email a question then a ex referee to explain why that decision was made and if its correct or not at the moment I can only find one show that has some thing simular
New post up now
That’s what I thought Cicero, but obviously that’s all changed…