Morning all.
Yet again, the officials are making the headlines instead of the game itself. This time it was Anthony Taylor who, after just seconds of the match being played, bottled making a big decision by booking Sadio Mane instead of sending him off. Six seconds, six minutes or sixty minutes, it matters not, if a player’s elbows an opponent in the face in the way Mane did, and has done on many occasions previously and certainly against Arsenal, he should be sent off. Taylor, and VAR for that matter, decision making made a mockery of the two bookings Gabriel received on Saturday. And the other bookings so easily dished out by Stuart Attwell.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank tore into Jamie Carragher for suggesting Mane’s actions didn’t warrant a red card:
Are you serious? Have you got your Red head on, or your football head on? A footballer knows where an opponent is. It’s a red card – forget about six seconds. He goes with his elbow and he’s endangering the player. The Premier League and PGMOL are going to come out and provide words to try to justify their decision with an explanation. It’s a red card.
Hasselbank has his blue hat on of course but even ex Liverpool thug, Graeme Souness said “red card, end of” as the debate rolled on. And on. This topic of conversation isn’t going away but I’m glad because it’s long overdue. Football needs Sky Sports, BT Sports, the newspapers – anyone and everyone who has a voice, to carry this debate on. Mike Riley and his incompetent group of officials need to be held accountable for the shocking and inconsistent decisions they’re making.
Arsenal face Liverpool on Thursday night but there’ll be no Mane, Salah or Keita because they’ve gone off to the ACON. There’s also a good chance that Klopp, Alisson, Firmino and Matip will miss our League Cup semi-final first leg because of positive Covid tests. Good!
Not so good is Arsenal being without Partey, who was superb against Man City, Pepe, Elneny and Aubameyang. AMN can replace Elneny, that’s if he doesn’t head off out on loan before Thursday, but Partey is going to be difficult to replace. Certainly the Partey whose performance was so good at the weekend. Sambi Lokonga is Mikel Arteta’s only real option. At a push, Ben White can play in midfield as I believe he has before and then there’s Calum Chambers. An ok solution for a game or two but not for 6-8 weeks.
Over the next 3-4 weeks Arsenal will be linked to many midfield players I’m sure, strikers too bearing in mind that Aubameyang’s future at the club is uncertain. Brazilian players because of Edu will probably be top of the list but frankly, I don’t care what a player’s name is, where he comes from or how much he costs, as long as he’s very good at his job. Be honest, had you heard of Takehiro Tomiyasu before Arsenal signed him? I hadn’t but the impact he’s had on the team already has been huge.
I don’t expect Arsenal to spend vast amounts of money during this transfer window but then again, I didn’t expect so much activity last summer so what do I know. Nothing is the answer because that’s the reality, none of us truly know what plans Arsenal have up their sleeve. However, surely with the way this season is going, now is the right time to add to the squad so that we can push on from where we are rather than give away what I think is a great opportunity to return to Champions League football.
Reports in the newspapers this morning suggest a deal for Alexander Isak is close. The Sun are running a story from El Nacional which claims the Swedish striker, 22, will replace Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang this month following an impressive spell in Spain. Mattias Svanberg and Bruno Guimarães are also being linked to Arsenal. Just three of many we’ll read about over the next days and weeks.
I like Granit Xhaka, yes I know that’ll surprise you but the problem with him is that one minute he can be brilliant, the next, he can do something stupid which will cost us points. Points which we cannot afford to drop. Not with Toots, Utd and West Ham breathing down our necks for that 4th spot. Toots and Utd have two games in hand too, making our fixture against both, crucial. The Toots fixture is on the 16th January.
Before then though, we have three domestic cup fixtures to play.
See you in the comments.
Harry Clarke is set to leave on a permanent move to Hibs. According to Sky Sports that is.
From yesterday but still pertinent
I wonder if Mr Bluemoon is totally happy with the standard of refereeing in the Premier .
Every week we see contentious incidents in virtually every game and when they go for you anyone with sense knows it’s only a matter of time before the next one goes against .
This doesn’t make it right but whilst the furore about our potential penalty rages as you read across the various sites supporters of City state that everything was correct . Then of course Mane gets away with another elbow and it’s a Chelsea v Liverpool spat and then there’s the Harry Kane debate , red card or nothing pantomime . “” OH yes he did , Oh no he didn’t ” and the PGMOL creep away whilst the argument rages.
When I was a kid we had a dog that got caught with her head in the railings , she had four pups . One of them when they were in the basket used to bite another ones tail and once the scrap started used to get up and walk away .
That’s the PGMOL whilst the argument goes on between the fans they survive and walk away . If fans of different clubs began to realise that except for possibly three clubs with influence , the rest are being screwed and turn on the authorities a change at the top is never going to happen.
Morning Rico and all
The officials no matter what sport will never do anything in regards to the referees, they all have the same excuse, they are only human and are trying their best and with out them we don’t have a game, which is crap as they are well paid.
As for the transfer market I got this feeling that we will buy or loan with the option to buy a striker to replace Auba and also loan a couple of players out to gain experience
Being a City fan, I suspect he couldn’t care less Potter as long as City continue to get the decisions going their way.
Then again it’s not new
https://dailycannon.com/2022/01/right-to-be-furious-mark-clattenburg-defends-arsenal-again-after-more-bad-refereeing-calls/
Morning Geoff. I think that if enough is said and written about the standard of officiating in the PL, something will happen. That’s why I’m pleased Sky, BT etc are highlighting the error in the way they are. As Adam has often suggested, there’s a big story out there if someone has the bravery to tell it.
There’s probably a good reason Mark Clattenburg isn’t officiating in the Premier League any more. He’s either too honest for Riley’s liking or couldn’t be bought.
I have watched English football since the late 60s and have always said that there are 3 clubs tending to benefit from refereeing; Liverpool, M. United and Totts. They have been joined in the last 2 years by M. City.
The VAR further accentuated this predominance: as happens in countries where I am able to follow the games, the most eligible Clubs and candidates for something, always benefit.
Some examples: do you see a VAR decision harming R. Madrid, in a R.Madrid-Alavés? In a Spezia-Juventus? In a Venlo-Ajax? Or a PSG-Metz? In a Tondela-Benfica?
VAR is better run in other European countries isn’t it Jm?
Rico I don’t know about England but in Australia if a commentator says anything bad about Aussie rules officials they get a tap on the shoulder and the either say they were wrong and apologise or get sacked.
Like everyone has said until certain people go nothing will change know matter how much it damages the game.
Morning Rico and gunners,
I said too much yesterday but I did point out that Mane should have gone after 6 seconds as I was watching the game whilst typing.
It’s astonishing how poor the officiating has become since the start of this season. They were trying to learn from the Euros which was the perfect way to referee and use VAR correctly. Football is a contact sport, just ask Norman ‘chopper’ Hunter. During the Euros we were transported back 20 years with refs waving play-on with players sprawled on the ground we were so in awe of have good it was we couldn’t stop talking about it. I think watching the Brentford vs Arsenal game with our depleted squad being forced to play never mind. During this game we saw the new way which they were starting to ref and although their second goal should have prompted VAR to intervene as Leno was cleared pinned by the giant Viking not a wimper was heard. And the next few games we didn’t hear much from VAR but although we were getting nice flowing games the VAR pendulum had swung too far and they were not involved at all. So clearly this was wrong and slowly but surely the problems started to resurface but this time it was where the hell is VAR now. So now we find ourselves back to some sort of normal inconsistent officiating and it’s just childlike. When everyone can see the decision that should be made isnt made and only the refs and VAR can somehow explain it away, I’m at a loss as to how they cannot sort this mess out.
It really isn’t that difficult, you have a set of rules, you train refs to apply those rules and you give them an incredible VAR system in case they missed something and got their decision wrong. But there is one thing missing most service operators lay down SLAs these are the quantitative and qualitative measures that the service must deliver otherwise there will be consequences. It goes to figure that some refs will have a dip in form or confidence they maybe suffering with mental health issues we are all human. So the SLAs provide feedback across the whole system to ensure it maintains a minimal standard and we would always expect a 5% improvement each year. Such as reducing the time to check an offside which they have achieved this year it seems.
Refs should be paid based on performance, so if they have a good month they get a bonus and a bad month may mean a reduction but it should be a salary and bonus system based on performance.
What is stopping this from happening is politics plane and simple and money will be in there somewhere greasing the wheels of inconsistency.
I hope we sign some more great players this month Bruno would be an excellent start. Or some Unknown Japanese player 👍
That’s harsh Geoff. Lol
Morning Mig, I think the rules are too wishy washy and left too open to interpretation. All the time decision making is subjective, they’ll be inconsistent imo.
It’s amazing how all these referees say mane has done nothing wrong and he only aims his elbow out to help him jump higher I bet you if Xhaka was to do the same thing he would get a straight red card.
Without a doubt.
Georginio Wijnaldum Being linked to Arsenal. Surely not.
Good afternoon all.
The Premiership refereeing situation has become a bad joke, in fact it is beyond a joke, it is seriously affecting the results of matches and thus skewing the league table.
There is constant outrage right across the fanbase of all the Premiership clubs and, more recently, the media are waking up to the to the situation. Yet those responsible, the officials and their employer the PGMOL, sit idly by in their Wembley ivory tower happy to do nothing but take the generous perks of the job and ignore the rabble outside.
No matter how often the subject arises, on this and all the other fan sites, nothing seems to get through to those responsible for the fiasco which is harming the game we all love and support.
Available freely on the internet is the PGMOL website. It lists the company address and the executive officers of the organisation. There are four active directors, Andrew Jeremy Ambler, David Francis Cookson, Michael Foster and Mike Austin Riley. and the secretary Graham Derek Noakes.
I’m sure that the gentlemen listed would welcome polite letters raising concerns and asking questions as to the actions they propose to take in order to repair the broken relationship between the fans and the officials.
There is no e mail address shown so letters should be addressed to :-
Professional Game Match Officials Limited
Wembley Stadium
Wembley
HA9 OWS
Middlesex.
Should you decide to write to the organisation, it is better to ask questions so that the recipient feels it necessary to reply to you rather than tossing your letter into the long grass.
There has to come a point though when the PL wake up to what’s going on. Either that or the owners of clubs will start making noises.
Rico, gee, they’re taking the time waking up to what’s happening 🙂
Wolves have just done us a nice little favour.
Bet Ronaldo is happy to be back hahahahaha
Great result by Wolves, but then they have had a nice long rest, a kind of winter break!
If Xhaka had done that Mane challenge the red card would have been out of Taylor pocket before you could blink..
So Ferran Torres leaves City for Barcelona but they can’t register him until either someone leaves or they reduce their wage bill.
Begs the question , anyone worth having ?.
Or take him on loan until the end of the season
Well Odegaard was a pretty good loan 12 months ago, I quite like the try before you buy system, let’s go down that avenue again?
Apparently Roma have made an offer for Niles but haven’t as yet had a response from Arsenal and I’m not at all surprised if the figures quoted are close to being correct as it seems Roma have bid in the region of half of what Arsenal’s valuation of the player is and half the loan fee Arsenal require.
Didn’t their bid for Xhaka teach them anything – Arsenal aren’t a soft touch anymore?!
And why on earth should anyone with half a brain cell think that with our history that Arsenal would do anything at all to help that tosser Jose Mourinho in any way?
We’ve just seen 40% of our defensive midfield depart to Africa in Partey and Elneny, which seems to me a very good reason to keep Niles. We could loan him out towards the end of January if the need be or even sell him if the price is right (Come on Down).
In the meantime we need Niles, if Xhaka has another mad moment we could be down to just Albert and Ainsley during this month…
Oh and the Saka rumours ffs why don’t those know nothing wankers give it a rest, whatever you do don’t click on that garbage…
Kev, there is no way in hell Saka is going anywhere-the rumours are just laughable.
AMN-gee, I’d be amazed if we let him go unless a major name midfielder is coming in?
‘morning all.
Here’s an interesting statistic, if that isn’t an oxymoron, throughout the Premiership this season the average time the ball is in play is 54 min 35 sec. That means that for almost 36 minutes nothing much is happening on the pitch. Refs have discretion about how much time they add on but that is usually 30 secs for each goal, yet goal celebrations go on for much longer. As a couple of examples, during the Brentford/Villa game the time elapse before the game restarted after Danny Ings first goal was 1 min 12 secs. Brentford’s equaliser brought about a delay of 1min 8secs and the delay after their winning goal was 1 min 13 secs. All the time wasted was taken up by goal celebrations and the players getting drinks from the coaching staff while heading back to the centre circle for the restart.
Are the paying customers being short changed?
Morning all.
I read that a few weeks ago Cicero and was amazed by the figures. Shocking really but time wasting is prevalent in the game these days. The time taken on throw ins, set pieces and goal kicks has got silly.
New post up now
It raises many Ideas
Take ice hockey where they have 3 x 20 minute sessions and the stopwatch is stopped as soon as the puck goes out of play There is a guaranteed 1 hour play , would 80 minutes be acceptable for football i.e. 2 x 40 minutes.?
I am not going to put names forward because I don’t know whether they would fit the narrative but we need to replace Xhaka sooner rather than later and for me that means two midfielders with 1 bought in and 1 promoted. Add to that a central hold up striker to duplicate the job that Lacazette has grown into.
Whether he stays or goes we are one injury or refereeing decision away from being derailed. The young ones play better with him than they do with an out and out goalscorer although I feel one with the mobility that Laca is showing coupled with the heading ability of Giroud would be worth targetting.