Morning all.
He’s absolutely gutted because it’s an injury coming from nowhere and a stupid one. It was a kick, a deliberate kick. It was not needed.
That’s Arsene Wenger talking about the reckless tackle on Lucas Perez by Danzell Gravenberch of Reading. Having now seen it, I have to agree. There was no chance of the defender getting the ball and one has to question whether or not it was deliberate. As far as I know, the Reading man didn’t even get booked for ‘tackle’ which easily could have seen him sent off.
The sad thing is though, Lucas, who hasn’t been given much playing time by Arsene Wenger will now be sidelined for 6-8 weeks and as the manager said, it was all so unnecessary.
There are other fitness concerns ahead of the trip to Sunderland tomorrow with Walcott, Cazorla and Monreal all having tests today. Ramsey is back though, as is Giroud for their first PL game in a while.
As expected, Arsene Wenger was asked his view on the ugly scenes seen in midweek at the Olympic Stadium when West Ham and Chelsea fans clashed violently. Apparently Arsene is a fan of ‘safe standing’ but believes this incident will have a major negative impact on bring standing back into the Premier League. Both clubs will be in trouble no doubt, as will any fans identified to have been involved in the violence and all face a lifetime ban from the game. Idiots! For West Ham, such scenes may have cost them a lot more than just a FA charge (if there is one) as just a few days later, their big money sponsorship deal fell through. Whether or not that decision was made by Mahindra Group because of the nights off field antics I don’t know but I doubt it helped West Hams cause…
Thankfully we seldom witness such ugly stuff at The Emirates, there might be the odd scuffle away from the ground but unless the Totts fans turn up and trash the toilets, it’s usually a peaceful place to be. Too peaceful sometimes but if Arsenal continue to perform well on the pitch, there’s no doubt the fans will find their voices. They certainly will next Sunday lunchtime, of that we can be sure as it’s the first NLD of the season. Interestingly, we play our Champions League match on Tuesday next week, while the Totts play on Wednesday.
Before then though, we’ve got to beat the worst team in the Premier League so far this season but I bet we make a meal of it…..
Have a good Friday guys…
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20161027/players-go-retro
Morning all.
Sunderland…..I’m not saying a word, Rico, as my last prediction was a comfortable win and we all saw how that ended lol
Me neither Scott. We are the club which likes to gift others….
Hi Rico, it’s awful to see such tackles go unpunished. And it happens to us only. We’ll need a creative midfielder to counter the brute that the Sunderland players will throw at us.
With arsenal there are no easy wins. ie the 5-7…even Ludogorets have us a game before we went for the kill
Hi Marshall. Totally agree. Diaby will probably agree too, the ghastly one he received finished his career really…
Dan Smith wasn’t it?
Dan Smith, indeed.
He was sent here to the penal colony 🙂
Is he still there Scott?
Afternoon All
Why isn’t the Reading player facing retrospective action from the FA..?
Arsenal should also get an apology from Mike Dean and Mike Riley…
Afternoon Kev, was Dean the ref? Says it all if he was. Good point re retrospective action, I guess the ref said he didn’t think it was bad…
Morning. Quite right Kev, its just not going to happen though! I was furious at the time, chap had been on the field only a minute or two.
Afternoon Rico and all. I am totally pissed off that we have copped another injury like that after a player ‘deliberately’ set out with the intention of hurting an Arsenal player. We have seen it so many times before and retrospective action should be taken for sure. But it won’t be. Bearing in mind that the Reading manager is that thug Staam, nobody should really be surprised as he made a living for many years by injuring opposition players.
Afternoon Adam, Andrew..
Said a few weeks ago that Stam has turned Reading into a physical side and he certainly has…
Sorry Rico, Dean did the Boro game ☹️️
🙂 Kev, I wasn’t trying to be smart, just didn’t think he’d do two on the trot for us…
I know you wasn’t Rico… ?
I was just being dumb
And so it has always been , Xhaka gets 3 matches for an ankle tap and the guy hurts himself falling , Perez gets assaulted and nothing , nada ,sweet F.A. They will pull you up for reaction but rarely look at the cause and you only get retrospective if Sky decide to get out of their prams about something . If it’s not on telly and there is no fuss it’s just ” nothing to see here and move on.”
No you were’t Kev… 🙂
Exactly Potter…
Andrew, it was deliberate and malicious with the only intent to injure the player…
I hope that Jaap Stam is a complete failure at Reading, we don’t need his type in English football.
Thanks Rico ?
He’s more likely to get them promoted Kev….
If there is any doubt, then I would not start Theo at Sunderland…
Oxlade-Chanberlain is on form, start him at the Stadium of Shite…
Rico, is Xhaka available yet?
Interesting that the default theme for so many managers, especially those trying to make their mark, is violence on the pitch. For some more experienced men, like Pochetino, it’s so deeply ingrained they simply cannot help themselves and incorporate it as ‘part of the game’. I don’t remember Sissoko being a thug at Newcastle yet, at Spurs he thinks it’s entirely ok to dangerously elbow people in the head. All Pochetino can do is to say that it wasn’t deliberate. What a tosser! But it shows the mindset at Spurs, the dirtiest club with the dirtiest players in the PL.
Same with Santiago, I wouldn’t risk him either…
Still banned Kev, last one…
Well said Adam, that deliberate elbow was nasty…
I wouldn’t play any player if they are a slight doubt either Kev, we need Santi, Theo and Monreal for the derby…
Arsene:
on whether Theo Walcott is ill…
‘No, he is not ill. There is a slight hamstring alert, a very minor one. He will have a test today’.
on whether Theo will be available to face Ludogorets…
‘He should be OK for Tuesday. If it’s not tomorrow, it’s OK for Tuesday’.
on Nacho’s injury…
‘He has a little muscle tightness’.
These muscle ‘tightnesses’ should lead to a player being rested and not risk them for months out.
Walcott scored a cracker at the Stadium of Gloom! Last match of the season, he picked the ball up on the halfway line and ran, full pelt towards the ‘cats’ ??? Goal. It was never in doubt, as soon as he got the ball I was certain he would score, and he did. 1-0 to the Arsenal! Not a very good game and freezing cold as the ground was surrounded by a har!
We could do with that again tomorrow. If he’s injured we will just have to rely on the Ox!
Win? Of course we should! Will we? Mmmm. Depends on how incisive we are. I shall be watching though, from the comfort and warmth of my own sitting room! And cheering them on.
Absolutely Marshall, need to be really careful with all three. We have a deep squad, use it…
Which season was that Wavy re Wavy?
Night all….
Night Rico.
Evening all.
So Blunderland are one defeat away from the worst ever EPL start ( according to talksport ) and they will have about 6 first choice players missing through injury ! ( again, according to talksport ) and we have had an extra days rest compared to them ( not talksport, I know this for sure )…………………………..I expect a thrashing of biblical proportions !……………………… I also expected this against `Boro !
If we cant beat them then we are trully excrement, no excuses and although I expect a ten niller I`d settle for any odd goal lucky win !…………….. prefer 20-19 win as to a 1-0 win !. 😀
Potter wouldn’t like to get ankle tapped by you…
“They” ( who ever they are ) reckon we were gazumped by £7M for Mkhitaryan by Manshafter in the summer !…………I can believe this as Kelsey said one of his friends sons was part of the Arsenal negotiating team who were in Dortmund for an unnamed player !………….just shows the lengths Maureen will go to to get one over Wenger……………then not play play the player !………………..and ironically the said player ( too fcuking hard to spell his name again ) thought he would get more playing time at Manshafter over Arsenal !…………………..seem to remember that Goonster was pre-mature ejaculating about us buying said player at the time !. 😆
The stiffs are 1-0 up against Blunderland stiffs.
Apologies Rico….I fell asleep.
Last I heard, Smith was playing 4th tier football in Brisbane.
That was 3-4 years ago.
I’d say he moved here permanently as at that level, he wasn’t making any money-certainly not enough to live on.
U23 now winning 3-0
Potter wouldn’t like to get ankle tapped by you.
Well I played in the 60’s and 70’s , the eighties and 90’s too . So ankle taps were the everyday occurence . I reckon he hurt himself more falling than Xhaka’s impact.
Amazing stat if true !.
https://twitter.com/AllAboutTheAFC/status/791326039049895936/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
If true Cocky….truly amazing.
Its finished 4-0
Mavididi,Nelson Hines C Willock Scored.
Potter, more a tongue in cheek comment, Xhaka’s tackle was more than an ankle tap imo..
I can assure ankle tapping is still alive and kicking in 2016…
Sorry should read,”I can assure you”
Morning all…
Hi Rico.
Xhaka wasn’t hurting anyone with his atrociously ordinary tackle, but this one on Perez was damn nasty.
If one was a red, both were, no question.
Still, would we expect any different?
Hi Scott.
I thought Xhaka’s was more cynical than harmful, the one on Perez was a nasty stamp…
I think Potter made an excellent point yesterday about television coverage here in the UK. If Sky Sports show the game, then they usually have the balls to highlight the bad tackles/incidents time and time again so the FA have little choice but to intervene. But when the games aren’t live, and only highlights shown on MOTD etc, they tend to leave the incidents out, certainly those against us.
Even when BT Sport show the matches live, they don’t make so much fuss about things because other than for the match, very few people watch the channels and they don’t have a programme like Sky Sports news – as far as I know…
New post up Scott… 😉