Morning all.
What a game! It had everything. Two tough tackling, fully committed sides with two really strong defensive units. Goal scoring opportunities were few, tackles were aplenty. Kai Havertz with the worst which from then on, added extra spice to a game already quite spiky. Havertz escaped with just a booking, much to the disgruntlement of the Newcastle players, three of whom received yellow cards for their objections. Staggering, Bruno Guimeres escaped punishment altogether for his assault on Jorginho. Understandable the referee might have missed the incident but VAR? Well, they must have been asleep. Later in the game, after the referee had blown his whistle to award a free kick and Guimaraes deliberately blasted the ball at Jorginho, or was it Havertz – Either way, I thought such an action was an automatic booking these days.
Just after the hour mark, the biggest moment in the match arrived. Willock didn’t manage to keep the ball in but instead of awarding a goal kick to Arsenal, Willock was allowed to play on. Admittedly, Raya flapped at the cross but as Gabriel went to clear it, he was pushed in the back by Joelinton and then to make matters worse, Gordon looked suspiciously offside when he scored. VAR viewed all three incidents but eventually allowed the goal to stand. Possibly one of the most controversial decisions made so far this season. Along with the goal which should have be for Liverpool against Totts.
Mikel Arteta’s post match interview was brutally honest.
on Newcastle’s goal:
We have to talk about the result because you have to talk about how they help these goals stand up, and it’s incredible. I feel embarrassed. But I have to be the one now coming here to try to defend the club and please ask for help because it’s an absolute disgrace that this goal is allowed, it’s an absolute disgrace. Because it’s not a goal, for many reasons it’s not a goal, for more than one reason at least it’s not a goal. And there’s too much at stake here, we put in so much effort, and it’s so difficult to compete at this level. And it’s an absolute disgrace. Again, I feel embarrassed, I’ve be more than 20 years in this country, and this is nowhere near the level to describe this as the best league in the world. I am sorry.
On the fact the goal was checked for three potential infringements:
That makes it even worse, makes it look even worse, it makes it even worse. You just need to see one image, that’s what you need, and you have any doubt you look at the second one. And if this is a goal, okay, that’s fine. I don’t care honestly, I don’t care what they say. It’s the outcome. It’s too late, whatever they say is too late. I don’t want to be in the hands of people.
On refereeing decisions in the first half:
The penalty on Eddie, there are a lot of things. We cannot continue.
On which of the three potential infringements could have led to Newcastle’s goal being disallowed:
This is really the question guys, the question is it’s not a goal it’s simple it’s not a goal. Simple. For a goal to be allowed there are certain things prior to that, that the ball hitting one metre from the goal that are not allowed in football, in football in here in China, in Japan, in Spain, in Italy, and in Portugal, they are not allowed. That’s what happens.
On if an apology from the Premier League would be of any use:
I have to stand here now and explain, And we lost three points today, guys. You know what that means? It’s too hard, this league, it’s too hard, there is too much at stake. It’s embarrassing.
On how the boss will pick the players up after today’s result:
I have to praise them, it’s not in their hands it’s not in their control. I have to praise the players the way they play here, and what they did and how much they limited Newcastle to what they did and how much we tried. It’s incredible. Honestly,
On William Saliba and Kai Havertz’s performances:
So much. It’s incredible the way these guys play with 20-years, 21-years-old, the way they play here, the way they compete against this team because they are a top team. Incredible. So to get a game out of that like this, I feel sick. That’s how I feel. I feel sick to be part of this.
Written down, Mikel Arteta’s emotions are lost but watch the video and you’ll feel his anger and frustration with the decisions made by the officials.That video is HERE.
Despite Gary Neville’s pathetic attempts to justify the Newcastle Utd goal being given, I honestly thought it’d be disallowed because there was clearly grass between the ball and the white line and Gabriel was shoved in the back as he attempted to clear the ball and I’m sure had that entire incident had occurred at the other end of the pitch, the goal would have been disallowed.
Controversy aside, I thought Arsenal were brilliant defensively. Our outfield players at least as David Raya still fills me with fear. But, step across the halfway line and we lacked presence in the box, creativity and do I dare say, imagination. Smart tactics by Eddie Howe or just poor from our players? The Fabio Vieira foul throw when a quick break was on was sloppy, as were Leandro Trossard’s corners.
Yes, we were robbed of a point but I don’t think we ever looked close to taking all three.
Catch up in the comments.
Morning rico, dreadful VAR yet again, and nothing happens. What a poor state of affairs, it opens further questions on corruption especially with the ever increasing middle east controlling of sport. I love that Arteta has spoken from the heart. If FA sanction him, I will really question my love of this sport.
Morning Andrew, well said. It’s one of the reasons I don’t bother watching football because little is fair in the game these days yet the subject of officiating and VAR is a hot potato which no decent journalist wants to take on.
I remember Adam used to say that there’s a massive story waiting to be told if someone was strong enough.
Dean said that he made VAR decisions to help his mate .You can’t help thinking we saw another example yesterday .
Attwell was losing the plot immediately following the Havertz incident , three yellows for dissent and a word to Howe . Guimares elbows ? forearm smashes into Jorginho , Attwell is already the butt of a very raucous crowd , can you imagine it’s reaction had the red card been shown . It was a deliberate overlooking to protect their mate
Same goes for the goal ,as much as things had calmed down a bit , had they ruled the goal out Attwell’s trip to the train station would have been fraught with danger.
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Afternoon Rico and all,
The regular contributors to this site know I wasn’t very keen on Arteta being given the manager’s job due to his inexperience, however listening to his last statement my respect for him has grown. Hopefully, the club will stand by him and not force him to apologize.
I think only people with low IQ take up refereeing in the modern game. The standard of refereeing 30 years ago was 100x better, without any aids.
I, however think the stupidity of some of the things happening at some clubs, play a huge part in the attitudes of officials towards those teams. It’s human nature; you respect people who are smart, who make smart decisions, and take themselves seriously. Arsenal, in recent times has notoriously thrown away hundreds of millions with contract terminations, and continues to do that, only to spend hundreds of millions buying even poorer replacements. Take Ozil, Pepe, Aubameyang, and several other players that the team is paying out of their contracts. Who’s going to respect a team like that really?
That’s the very point though isn’t it? Officiating should be about only that, nothing else. How many times have we heard the “had he not already been booked, he’d have been booked for that” comment? A foul is a foul and a booking is a booking regardless of what’s gone on beforehand.
Hi Geoff, I can’t see any apology being asked of Arteta, all he’s done is tell the truth. What we need imo is other managers to be more outspoken. I’m surprised Dyche hasn’t had a rant after their game against Brighton yesterday.
Good morning all.
A single picture on page two of this morning’s Sunday Telegraph Sport section clears up the whole was it a goal dispute, the photograph clearly shows that the ball was out of play before Willock whipped in his cross.
All of the evidence used by the Var team is still around somewhere, it should be made available to an independent enquiry, not to change the outcome of the game but to provide a learning tool for the PGMOL officials.
MM, I’m not really sure what you’re getting at..
The problem is the PGMOL they never learn, not only was the ball out of play, but what about our player being clearly pushed in the back only seconds before the goal was scored.
The goal was ruled out by there being, quote “no reason to not rule out”. The photo I refer to shows a clear reason why it should be ruled out. It would be nice to know that the PGMOL take seriously the clear and obvious errors that they continually make and do not sweep them under the carpet. Nothing will change the result of the game, but reviewing the evidence might help improve their decision making process in the future.
Bum, I’ve just lost a comment. Basically, they don’t want to change because if they did, they would have done so by now. How many errors have been made and pointed out? Have they learned or improved? No.
Two bookings for Arsenal women already. The game is only 8 minutes in.
I don’t think this was incompetence. Bias is also less likely nowadays. The amount of money in the premier league leaves me with just one conclusion. Human beings are no saints. I’m not sure I want to continue to finance this machine. I’ve said that before, but there’s really much more important stuff in life than football.
One for City now, Hemp.
Great move, great strike. 1-0
I wonder if Mikel was watching that move Cicero. 😂
One nil to the Arsenal. Cately.
Maybe Mikel and Jonas could swap jobs for a while😉
Penalty for Arsenal.
Saved
Needed more power from Little… Bad miss.
On a serious note, Arteta must be feeling the pressure a bit. Stupid as that might sound but our squad, attacking wise especially is seriously lacking.
Loose Rice, worse still, Saliba too and I think we could struggle.
Add to that the goalkeeping fiasco, things aren’t looking quite so rosy.
Good game, end to end, two fully committed sides.
Agreed.
A defeat, in my opinion, due to a gross refereeing error. However, Arsenal has to play more, much more to be a candidate for the title. Once again, we witness a desolate game from Harvaetz; with some players injured, you look at the bench and see few solutions; As I said in the pre-season, it seemed to me that the squad was short. In my mind were the cases of Partney, G. Jesus and Zinchenko, which are not available part of the time. They have now been joined by Timber and S.Row. Cedric and Elheny count for little. Do we have a squad?
We have a squad Jm, whether or not it’s strong enough to cope with either current or potential future injuries though is debatable.
The players KNOW when a ball is out of play and they all seemed to stop
until the zebra player realized that the ref might not have stopped play. Players and both sides stopped until they realized the officiating mistake.
Mostly our squad at it’s best is quite capable of beating anyone however make a couple of changes and things go down . When we make as many as we did against West Ham things go too far.
Newcastle had 7 players missing yesterday , some of whom might have won the game for them without the controversy. Isak , Harvey Barnes , Matt Targett to name a few, but the ones that came in for them and the subs that came on all played for their places .
I can’t say that ours did.
We all and every man and his dog know that we need to score goals and his display against Sheffield United showed the level at which Nketiah is most effective . However a truly organised physical defence brushes him off too easily .
I am not suggesting that we should buy Toney in January but I think someone of his ilk would have got us the points yesterday.
Dick, the golden rule in any sport is play to the whistle..
This will surprise you Potter, but I agree.
Maybe they should change the wording to, if most of the ball is over the line then it is deemed as out of play
Easier to say if the ball is not touching the line it’s out of play, same for corners where players try to gain a half inch by placing the ball so it is above the line but not touching it
The longest game we’ve seen so far seventeen minutes added time., but our girls held out to win 2 – 1. Thereby ending City’s unbeaten run. 🔔🔔
Cicero…. I was thinking much the same but then realised that would not help inf the ball was in the air. To me it’s simple….. extend goal line technology to all the lines.
Excellent result at Boreham Wood.
Follow the rules of tennis and it’d be simple…
A tennis ball is much smaller than a football and hawkeye seems to be accurate to millimetres .
Arsenal have made a statement fully supporting Arteta
Arsenal Football Club wholeheartedly supports Mikel Arteta’s post-match comments after yet more unacceptable refereeing and VAR errors on Saturday evening.
We’d also like to acknowledge the huge effort and performance from our players and travelling supporters at St James’ Park.
The Premier League is the best league in the world with the best players, coaches and supporters, all of whom deserve better. PGMOL urgently needs to address the standard of officiating and focus on action which moves us all on from retrospective analysis, attempted explanations and apologies.
We support the ongoing efforts of Chief Refereeing Officer, Howard Webb and would welcome working together to achieve the world-class officiating standards our league demands.
The principle is the same though Potter, when the ball lands, if no part of it is touching the white line, it’s out. Forget when it’s in the air, just when it lands.
Excellent news out of the club. I’m glad they’ve done that.
Has anybody read Untold Arsenal , If this is true then the cat is well and truly out of the bag.
“”Additionally it is being claimed that the officials handling VAR were Andy Madley and Stuart Burt who it is being said, have jobs with the Saudi League which is owned by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, an organisation which coincidentally also owns Newcastle United. These allegations have appeared on X, but we don’t have any way of confirming this yet. “”
It’s most unlike them to print things unsubstantiated . They must believe that there is something to it.
I wonder if Neville , Owen and co are on a similar payroll.
excellent news from the club for supporting Arteta, normally the clubs try to calm things down or say it was said in the heat of the moment or taken out of context.
Potter 11.24 if true the PGMOL will need some good spin doctors to say it was not rigged, at the end of the day the PGMOL should know who is paid by who and therefore they cannot officiate at any club who have a link to the employer.
Now the Athletic :- https://theathletic.com/4922732/2023/10/03/referees-var-diaz-liverpool/
I read that too about the officials and their little trip to Saudi. As said earlier, there’s an enormous can of worms just waiting for someone to rip the lid off.
Clattenburg, who was once considered one of the better officials, also one who didn’t stick around that long in England, says the goal should have been disallowed for the foul on Gabriel. Hackett is another who said the goal should never have stood.
It will be informative to see what action, if any, the PGMOL take against Arteta for his outspoken comments on the latest refereeing omnishambles. If they decide to punish him, will they also punish the club’s senior management for their temerity in backing their manager to the hilt? Once again that photo of the ball out of play has been published in The Telegraph, each time I look at it the gap between ball and touchline seems greater.
In his Telegraph column this morning, Hackett went further than the ball and line controversy, he also suggested that not only was Gabriel fouled but that the Newcastle player was offside. In his opinion the goal should have been ruled out on all three counts.
The PL will throw the book at Arteta I’m sure. Still, it’s out there now which is what was needed imo.
We played well when Albert filled in. Lol
Adam knew what he was talking about…
It’s simples really, Bruno gets sent off as he should have done and it’s a different game, a game we probably win.
The officials bottled it after the Havertz yellow card – which wax a yellow card but you expect the crowd to influence the referee decision, he wax strong there but let down by VAR…
The referee wasn’t sure if the ball was out of play, he wasn’t sure about the offside and probably wanted a second opinion on the foul but VAR failed on all three decisions, just as it failed on the Bruno forearm smash.
Agreed, I don’t really blame the ref, the idiots on VAR however, totally different story.
All good fun at the Lane , 2 sent off , multiple injuries and Chavs win 4 -1
Spuds have two sent off. Five goals ruled out by Var Chelsea win 4 – 1 and it really should ha e been 5 – 1
That’s Spuds unbeaten run over.
When I was a kid my Dad said to me that whenever Arsenal depress you , there’s always Spurs to cheer you up.
Thanks dad .
Can someone please give Michael Owen a tissue as the poor man is upset and he can’t stop crying about people rubbishing the PGMOL and the VAR.
Good morning all.
It appears that the FA will not take any action against Mikel Arteta for his diatribe following Saturday evening’s Var fiasco.
The FA have been considering the various comments with no definite decision reached last night, the remarks do not appear to clearly breach rules over questioning either the integrity of officials or making an excessively personalised attack.
The FA taking no action does that mean that deep down the VAR stuffed up again. if I didn’t know any better, I would say the ref’s are deliberately stuffing up VAR to get rid off it.
Really Cicero? I’m surprised because as I’ve just written in the new post, I thought they throw the book at him.
New post up.