Morning all.
My answer to the heading is no, not really. We should have shown composure up front to win. Certainly in the first half when we were at our best.
Jurrien Timber and Bukayo Saka made a more than welcome return to the side which meant Thomas Partey dropped into the right back position and Ben White paired up with Gabriel in the middle. Jurrien Timber was at left back. In the middle of park was Mikel Merino and Declan Rice, ahead of them, Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard.
That’s a good starting 11 in my opinion. Of course any one of William Saliba and Martin Odegaard would have made us stronger, as would Takehiro Tomiyasu but as Arteta alluded to before the game, injuries are not an excuse.
Our first goal was outrageous, the ball from White, excellent. Saka picked it up, bamboozled Robertson before smashing the ball high into the net. Liverpool’s equaliser came from a corner. As the ball came into the box, Havertz couldn’t stop the knock-on header and van Dijk headed past David Raya.
At 1-1, it was Arsenal who had opportunities to go ahead and looked the more likely of the two sides to go ahead but as half-time arrived, it was honours even.
After the break, we did go ahead. One of a number of fouls committed by Dias gave us a free-kick around 25-30 yards from Liverpool’s goal. Declan Rice delivered the perfect ball into the box which Merino headed home. His first goal in Arsenal colours and it was brilliant. As was his celebration. VAR spent the next few minutes trying to find a reason to deny the goal but the big blue boot of van Dijk meant they couldn’t. Arsenal were ahead.
Then it went kind of wrong really. Gabriel, who’d already dropped to ground after a challenge which on replay showed his knee taking a knock, went to ground again only this time, he had to be replaced by Jakub Kiwior. Next up it was Jurrien Timber who had to be replaced as he appeared to be suffering with cramp. Myles Lewis-Skelly came on in his place. It wasn’t long before the youngster combined with Martinelli to set up a chance for our Brazilian but, it ended up being another opportunity missed.
Liverpool then equalised. A quick breakaway from defence which Salah finished. Arteta wouldn’t have been happy with our defending. We went for the winner and had Anthony Taylor not intervened when Kiwior won a challenge which ended up with Havertz in possession and through on goal, we would have got it. Havertz struck the post before Jesus poked the ball home. Terrible officiating for a challenge which had it been the other way round, wouldn’t have been penalised in my opinion.
The game ended 2-2 but I thought Arsenal were at times, really good. Partey was brilliant at right back, Merino and Rice in midfield too and of course, Saka was just Saka and Timber is probably still trying to get Salah out of his pocket.
What I find sad is that yesterday was yet another game in which showed how we as a club are treated differently to others during a game. How did Taylor and VAR allow van Dijk get away with kicking out at Havertz when we’ve seen Arsenal players be sent off for something similar? How could the linesman give a goal kick right at the end of the game when it was so clearly a corner for us. Did Taylor consciously or subconsciously believe that Havertz could go on to score our winner when he penalised Kiwior and how many times was Dias allowed to foul Partey?
Forget the result, it’s not about that. It’s about consistency from the officials which we’re not getting. Football and the Premier League is being let down by the PGMOL. Not just Arsenal, although it feels like it sometimes, but there are other clubs on the end of a number of poor decisions.
Man City are in the middle of a court hearing over their 115 alleged breach of the rules, Leicester City, Everton, Nottingham Forest and Reading have been penalised for their overspending but when is someone going to take the PGMOL to task about the job they are doing? Players, coaches and staff are penalised every week for their errors but the officials just carry on without consequence yet they are failing to do their job properly time and time again.
Catch up in the comments.
Morning rico, house. Bad luck with injuries, downright bad refereeing, it’s sickening. And yet it goes on and on.
Morning Andrew. The officials do my head in. They are so hit and miss.
The PGMOL are an entity that marks it’s own homework and appears to have gagging agreements with the media. The Premier League and the television are not going to look at anything that upsets their product’s success and anything that looks to be a bit dodgy is instantly whitewashed by ex PGMOL employees that are now in employ of the media and have signed non critical severance contracts to protect their pensions.
The only commentator that started criticising referees was Alan Green and he was removed and sacked by the BBC this was back in 2020. Green said he was told he didn’t fit the BBC’s profile and that the organization had lost its way in pursuit of change
Anything to protect Lineker and the three stooges on Match of the day that often erases any contentious incident in a match, to prove in the words of Bob Dylan that all’s equal and the courts are on the level. I have not watched it but I will be surprised if they even show or pass comment on Van Dyke’s assault on Havertz long after the ball has gone. Not in their remit , instead they will concentrate on how good Salah was and his equaliser.
Morning Rico and all.
How many times do you see players jump and lean over there apponent shoulder and not get penalised, yet as soon we tried it and looked like scoring the ref blows his whistle to help Liverpool, these refs are slowing turning me off the game.
Spot on. One day, surely someone will have the balls to delve deep into the officials and how they seem to pick and choose when and where they make their decisions. I know Untold Arsenal are doing it but it needs someone or an organisation bigger than them to start things going..
The sending off of Fernandes against Totts was a prime example of how the operators of VAR haven’t a clue what they’re doing. The late goal City were allowed just a week ago, had Wolves, Forest, Southampton etc scored that against City, I’d bet it would have been offside..
Morning Geoff.
It’s not only the premier league, in oz none of the commentators on Aussie Rules are aloud to say anythink negative about our umpires with out being sacked,
G’day all. As far as I’m concerned nuff said about yesterday’s game. 😒
We’ve been linked with Newcastle’s striker Isak recently, so I watched the Chelsea / Magpies game and the striker in particular. He has the same attitude to pressing as Harry Kane, not too enthusiastically! He also tends to jog around in the general area of the centre circle also a la Kane. In the game he had two scoring chances, one he took and the other he muffed up through indecision.
Newcastle will want a lot of money for him, he’s not worth it. There must be better strikers, more suited to our style of play, out there somewhere.
On Var, this from Keith Hackett courtesy of The Telegraph re United v Hammers penalty award “Crikey me, this is horrendous. The decision to give West Ham a penalty that they won the game from – and could cost Erik ten Hag his job – is one of the worst I have ever seen. I cannot see how Matthijs de Ligt was adjudged to have fouled Danny Ings.
I am struggling to even put this into words. It is bizarre – I am stunned. Actually, it is worse than bizarre. A park referee would not even give this as a penalty. Ten Hag has every right to be furious.
It is not a clear and obvious error for David Coote to give no penalty. What on earth has Michael Oliver even seen, as the VAR?
It goes back to what I have spoken about in the past, about referees and hierarchy. Everyone says Oliver is the No 1 referee in the country, and Coote is probably eight, nine or 10 in the list. I am not saying he is subservient, that would be the wrong choice of words, but is Coote essentially just taking Oliver’s word for it? Is he working on a preconceived idea that Oliver must be right all the time”?
A’noon Rico.
Considering the amount of injuries going into the game I would have taken a draw. We were the better side, but the Gabriel & Timber subs made us vulnerable to the long ball counter, which caught us out. Martinelli’s touch let him down, but the defence got out of shape.
Partey, White, Timber & Saka had great games. Rice was back to his outstanding best.
The automated VAR needs to come in asap. Wasting 4 minutes looking at every option to try to disallow a goal is nonsense.
For the disallowed Jesus goal I watched Taylor stick the whistle in his mouth after the Kiwior challenge, but allowed an advantage before blowing up. Very bizarre. From what I saw there was no foul from Kiwior.
Hi Cicero, I think Oliver is now one of the worst. Or at least as bad as the others…
Ten Hag has been sacked now.
Hello Rico and everyone.
It was an interesting game to watch and I will say I’m proud of this team even after 9 games and with all the robberies we have experienced from officials we are still third on the table.
Whatever is keeping those who can actually do something from saying anything must be really strong, I leave them with their conscience.
For me, being a fan of this club since 2004 I will keep on enjoying and worry more about what’s in our control. I feel we stand a better chance at winning the Champions league than winning the Premier league, cups in general.
I hope Arteta focus on the Cups and let’s see how the league goes. We are a great team.
Afternoon Pete.
When Timber and Saka were named in the team I thought we’d win and we probably would have had Gabriel hadn’t suffered injury. He’s such a big player and character.
I was so fuming with the ref/Var last night I had to switch off and not think about football for a while.
I thought our whole team,including the subs did well.
Partey was outmuscled for their first goal but came back from that and had a really good game. To lose Gabriel was yet another blow. Hopefully he’s back for the Newcastle game,I think he will be,he’s a tough guy. I know we have Preston first but we should have enough to beat them anyway.
I thought the first half was our best this season,which has been pretty tough,both fixtures and injuries.
Good afternoon Rico and all.
A very honest match report Rico.
I am not going to go down the referee debate. I have been saying that refs and league are bent for years now. Even before the 2020’s. Certain patterns are too obvious to ignore. And it will continue until someone gets caught. Be careful of a full scale domino avalanche then.
The EPL, which is made up of chairmen, can easily solve this situation (unless they are in it as well). They can stop using the PGMOL services and begin using foreign refs. for all games. Yes I know many will shoot me on this, however, it can be done. And it should remain that way till fairness is seen in lower divisions.
Cicero’s comment about the WHU penalty was spot on. couldn’t have worded it better myself.
We should have won the game fair and simple. Liverpool were there for the taking. And although we took just four shots on target we could easily have had more had we been full strength team. Did we miss Saliba? No. White did an excellent job and knowing we have him in our team makes me sleep easy. Timber?? Superb – a hard nut to crack. PArtey had, I believe, one of the best games in our shirt. While Gabriel was simply Gabriel. Kiwior was slightly so and so and while many on social media are blaming him for pulling the defence out of place for the second goal I dont think it that way.
Thankfully its still early and although we are five points behind I don’t think that’s unsurmountable. If it had been April or March then maybe yes. We have already got City, Spuds, Pool, out of the system and of the so called big teams we have to face United (ETH was sacked so it will be RVN in the hot seat), Chavs and NUFC. So three teams out of the way by game 9.
I still believe, that even with the present squad, if everything is fair with the whistle and game, we can do another season unbeaten.
I’d quite like to see the likes of Sterling, Jesus, Jorginho, the young keeper etc etc play Preston and concentrate on keeping the rest fit.
Hi Mexzy, Devil.
All we all want is a level playing field for every club with no favouritism…
I’m sure Arteta will be really disappointed with our defending Devil, but as you say, we created enough opportunities to win the game. That’s exactly why the striker debate will rumble on..