Morning all.
Having not seen the entire game it’s hard to write much about it but by all accounts, we could have been at least two goals ahead before the sending off of Rice. We even had two really good opportunities to nick all three points late in the second half too but couldn’t take them. In the end we fought hard to earn a point.
The goal we did score was a good one. A clearance from Jurrien Timber, a ball from Bukayo Saka into the path of Kai Havertz and he lobbed the outrushing keeper from just outside the box.
Referee Chris Kavanagh ended up stealing the back page headlines and not for good reasons.
Mikel Arteta criticised the lack of consistency from the officials during the game. He even went as far to suggest Veltman should have also seen red for his involvement in the same incident which saw Declan Rice sent off after picking up a second yellow card.
I was amazed. Amazed, amazed, amazed because of how inconsistent decisions can be. In the first half, there were two incidents and nothing happened. Then, in a non-critical area, the ball hits Declan, he turns around, doesn’t see the player coming and touches the ball. By law, he can make that call, but by law then he needs to make the next call which is a red card. So we play 10 against 11. This amazed me, at this level. – Mikel Arteta.
I’m probably no different to any other football fan in wanting consistency. If the rules are to be applied, then apply them to everyone rather than picking and choosing who or which club to penalise. Kavanagh clearly thought it was acceptable for Joao Pedro to hoof the ball 30/40 yards away from the sideline where Martin Odegaard was approaching for an Arsenal throw in, but when Declan Rice flicks a rolling ball away and gets clattered by Joel Veltman in the process, it’s a booking for the Arsenal man.
What about the Dunk handball?
Reading reports of the game, until the Rice sending off, Arsenal were pretty much controlling the game but once it was 10 v 11, it was advantage Brighton. Gabriel and Raya could have done better for Brighton’s goal but the highlights I’ve seen shows just how hard they and the rest of the team fought to ensure we kept a point.
In the end, we could have taken three points when both Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz had chances to score but just like a few in the first half, they went begging.
What could and should have been a cracking game between two very good teams was ruined by shocking officiating.
Catch up in the comments.
As said in the post, the officials were dire, they often are but they’re perhaps masking another problem, our lack of ruthlessness in front of goal.
Admittedly, I’ve only seen highlights but how many chances, good chances, did we spurn in the first half and again late in the game?
We’ve pretty much halved our attacking options this summer and signed Sterling who has never been a scorer of many goals. We have a permanent crock in Jesus who like Sterling doesn’t score very often and Arteta for some reason thinks that our wingers/midfielders between them will get the goals we need to win the league.
Dreams and pipes spring to mind.
Morning Rico
There’s no doubt in my mind that the referee showed two-tier levels of officiating, but let’s be clear, the managers and players discuss the officials before every game, they discuss the officials personalities and differences so we know what the refs are all about and in general we avoid antagonising them as Arsenal are routinely treated more severely than many other clubs, so Declan was rather naive in allowing Kavanagh the opportunity he took with great ease in sending him off.
Declan must have been in that situation numerous times at West Ham but never received at red card but he’s at Arsenal now and the treatment of Arsenal players is different.
Morning Kev.
Rice was naive, stupid even.
If that had been Xhaka, he’d have been lambasted everywhere and by everyone. But, he’d have been sent off for the challenge earlier in the game too.
Had Wenger been manager, at the end of the this transfer window he too would have been battered for not signing a striker/goal scorer.
The officiating is nothing new, we should know better than to give them a decision to make.
Morning Rico and all.
According to reports the officals have backed the ref saying that the ref told Rice to get out but he didn’t then he tried to block the player from taking the free quickle.
But never mentioned anything about them kicking the ball away earlier.
also as mentioned after the match in the studio the spoke about Rice sending off and mentioned that the player kicked the ball towards Rice and if they had scored VAR would have cancelled it as he took the free from the wrong spot.
Rico, I get the concern over not having a Haaland type finisher but I don’t know of any other Haaland type out there who we could get?
Gyorkeres? Osimhen? Toney? Nunez? Calvert-Lewin? Pick the bones out of that lot…
Arsenal scored 91 goals last season and 88 in 22/23 that’s a better return than any of our title winning seasons since 1971 and our 91 is our highest return since 1952/53.
All without an Ian Wright or a Thierry Henry or a John Radford or an Alan Smith…
The media love a narrative, something to bash us with, something to sew discontent, it’s how they roll. The stats don’t lie, 91 goals and 88 goals don’t strike me as a crisis but we are unfortunately up against a freak of nature, the best manager since time began and a financial behemoth which has perverted our league.
I am wondering if Odegaard should be stripped of his captaincy, to me he seems to quiet when it comes to defending his team mates to the officials,
Morning Geoff, the whole incident was farcical, as was the general officiating.
Kev, for me it’s about our attacking options which are sparse. There are players out there who would give us something more/different but perhaps we set our sights too high.
Every other club seems to have one if not two strikers and now, we have none. Not one out and out striker who could come off the bench and have a chance of getting a goal…
I get what you’re saying about last season but the chances of that happening again are quite slim imo.
Man City just have Harland and no other striker Rico, btw Havertz has 2 goals in 3 games, at that rate he’ll end the season on about 25 goals, not bad for guy whose not a striker.
Too many of our attackers were off form yesterday, it happens and it’ll happen again in fact it’ll happen to Haaland, unfortunately for us they’re a better team with a better manager but we’ll still compete, because we’re pretty good as well.
Any thoughts on whether VAR could have reviewed whether Veltman actually put the ball in play when he kicked it from the spot of the foul towards Rice? He was clearly looking to get Rice sent off and wasn’t even looking at the moving ball when he took a swing at Rice.
Let’s stop the blame game on the team the truth is we scored a goal and we could have scored more but the ref messed us up . what if we signed a Halland and the Red was given to him
Ok Kev but one at Arsenal would do 😝
Seriously though, I’m not knocking our players, just the lack of when plan a goes wrong.
I thought they did Joe, just not the Rice booking.
Peter, no one is suggesting the officials were dreadful but even so, we just need to be more ruthless in front of goal imo.
Rico, did have red Daily Canon site on news now have a story where an ex-ref said Rice should not have been yellow carded and Kavanagh was looking for trouble
I did Geoff, it was the view of ex referee Mark Halsey.
Remember when Martinelli was booked twice by Oliver for two offences in one action of play, we hadn’t seen that before and we haven’t seen it since and probably won’t again, unless it’s an Arsenal player.
Remember when Tomiyasu was sent off at Palace for time wasting when it hadn’t been him wasting the time but the guy who threw him the ball, we hadn’t seen that before either and we haven’t seen it since.
Two-tier officiating
It’s dreadful refereeing and little to nothing is being done to change it.
My bigger concern now is how we will line up against “Sperms” in two weeks time with Declan suspended and Merino injured. What will our midfield look like? Will it be a straight swop with Jorginho in for Rice because if that’s the case, I’m nervous already. Besides the fact that Jorginho doesn’t have the legs?
Jorginho and Partey I think, unless Arteta thinks outside the box and uses one of Timber, Kiwior or Calafiori in midfield.
Just repeating as my comment went missing.
Mark H, only a guess but I reckon we could see Calafiori start.
can some explain why it is a yellow card for kicking the ball away like Rice did, yet players pick up the ball and walk away with it before throwing it back yet never get a yellow card.
Rice received two correct yellow cards. The criteria are not the same for opponents, but it is something that has been known for a long time. I believe I have already posted that it is unbelievable how Arsenal normally have more yellow cards than their opponents, usually suffering more than twice as many fouls. Arbitrations…
I’ve also said that Arsenal have a very short squad taking into account injuries, suspensions, drops in form, etc. Today is September 1st and there are already concerns about the team that will play the next game. Yesterday we looked at the bench and there were no alternatives when it was necessary, in my opinion, to use up all the substitutions and rejuvenate the team. Furthermore, I feel that Odegard, Saka and Rice (at least) are physically bad. They don’t play a complete game with good performance and they have ups and downs in their performance throughout the game.
Jm, Jesus should be back for the trip to Totts which should ease your concerns and Sterling will be available too. 😂
They are not the solution to the main problem.
I know Jm.
Totts lost at Newcastle and Chavs drew with Palace..
I think that none of us are not aware that by the letter of the law it was a second yellow . The reason that we are all upset is because it’s a rule that is rarely enforced and in yesterdays case not even in the same match .
By rights we can expect a plethora of cards for similar events but we all know that it wont happen in fact it hasnt today . It was refreshing to hear the commentator highlight it . Perhaps they are catching on to the inequality and inadequancy of our referees .
Yep, that’s my gripe too.
It’s not the ruling but the fact that only we seem to be penalised.
Good evening all.
A bit late with this comment, we’ve had a family day at Wells-next-the-Sea. Six hours of sunshine, bit of a breeze at times but very enjoyable, only one drawback, the life guards were “advising” people to stay out of the water due to high e coli levels.
So I’ve had a night and a day to mull over yesterday’s match. It’s my opinion that by the letter of the law, the second yellow card was quite correct and that really should be the end of it. But that only highlights the desperately poor standard of the officials concerned when it comes to consistency and even handedness. The Brighton winger should have earlier been booked for kicking the ball about forty yards away as Odegaard was about to pick it up to take a throw-in. Rice was booked for catching the heel of an opponent but the Brighton player who put his studs into Odegaard’s shin got away with it. That injury, by the way, Geoff was the reason for his early substitution and I would be surprised if he is fit to play after the International break.
After the Brighton goal our defence did panic a bit and seemed to lose all cohesion but the quick action by Arteta who replaced Trossard with Calafiori steadied the ship and the whole team slogged their guts out to prevent a second goal.
So was it two points lost or one point gained?
Against the Spuds I expect Timber to start with, perhaps, Zinchenko in midfield until he tires and is replaced by Calafiori.
Congratulations to England for winning the three match test series against Sri Lanka with a game to spare.🔔🔔🔔
Cicero, I didn’t say mention about Odegaard coming off, I like Odegaard and he did struggle after he got a knock earlier in the match, but I still don’t feel he is the wright person to be captain as you never see him have a go and even take a yellow card and stick up for his team mates,
The ref allowed most of our player to be kicked and get away with it, but it doesn’t help our own corse when some of our players go down to easy.
I think Odegaard is a good captain. He certainly leads by example and his demeanour is what Arteta wants on the pitch I think. Cool and calm..
One point fought hard for I think Cicero.
New post up.
Only the captain can approach the referee about decisions the officials make and when do you ever see a referee change his mind, never in my experience except for mistaken identity brought to his attention by VAR.
Before VAR we just had to suck up every mistake.
In a way it’s good that we don’t see gangs of players surrounding the referees anymore.
Arteta has a lot to think about before the game at WHL as he’s got to come up with an answer to not having his two first choice midfielders.
Jorginho and Partey don’t have the spring in their step to play as a pair so if they do then Arteta will have, I reckon, come up with a new system for that game.