While not necessarily intending to go Nietzsche on everyone, I thought that one of the oft-quoted German philosopher’s better-known quotes may apply here…Before I begin discussing things, let me say up front that I am not going to sit here and unload on referee Phil Dowd and his crew. I think they did a poor job today, and I would hope that Dowd will cringe when he sees a match replay and views some of his decisions in hindsight. Nevertheless, just where will another “bent referee” rant get us?
Will that give our players the focus and “mental strength” (to quote our very own Alsatian philosopher) to overcome these kinds of challenges? Will that suddenly make the authorities sit up and say “You know what? Arsenal have been hard done by, now we need to make it up to them”? It will not accomplish a thing, other than to fuel a persecution complex; a persecution complex may well distract us from critically analyzing and correcting the things that we did wrong this afternoon. For, make no mistake, we contributed to our own downfall in more than one way.
Today’s events certainly can make us stronger, if we allow them to. If we can forget about the referee, resolve to be stronger when we face adversity, refuse to allow any situations other than who we are and what we are doing on the pitch dictate what happens with us, who knows where we can go. Why don’t we try refusing to accept dropping points? Why don’t we laugh in Joey Barton’s face and point at the scoreboard (which read 0-4 at the moment of the flashpoint incident) when he tries to provoke our players into stupidity?
If we are under pressure and see that four goals may not be enough, why don’t we score five, six, seven, if necessary? If the situation dictates we need to score two more goals in stoppage time, already leading 5-0, why don’t we? Why don’t we take a ruthless edge to these games? Instead of subconsciously taking our collective foot off the pedal, why don’t we develop a mindset that we can never have enough goals? That if we run up the score on you and you don’t like it that is your problem. That we have already seen big leads slip away, and we refuse to let it happen again. What will happen? Will the media, league, and opposing fans hate us? Since when have we ever been loved, except by our own support…Will opponents get mad and try and subject us to rough treatment? We get plenty of that for being “nice guys”…I think we are hated without being feared – perhaps it is time for the latter as well…
Who remembers our First Division title winning 1990-91 season? Specifically, the battle of Old Trafford, where we and United got involved in a mass brawl (Limpar’s goal giving us a 1-0 win), which saw Arsenal docked two points (and United only one) in the standings. That squad, already pretty tight and focused, used this as extra motivation and we set about overhauling Liverpool. On May 6th, 1991 Liverpool lost at Nottingham Forest, which meant that our later kickoff (ironically at Highbury versus Man United) saw us take the pitch already crowned champions. We underlined our title triumph with a 3-1 win, and the crowd incessantly serenaded the FA with “You can stick your %&$ing two points up your @%$se!” Back then, we didn’t care what others thought of us, or what they did to us; we were going to prevail no matter what. How welcome would that mindset be in this current situation?
We can also allow it to have the opposite effect – “what’s the use, the league are in United’s pocket”, “we cannot play against twelve men every match”, etc. etc…All something to be said for that. While I do not necessarily think there is a conspiracy against us/for Man United, we clearly got no change out of Dowd today…Newcastle got the benefit of the doubt on most occasions, while we certainly did not. We can point not only to the penalty decisions, but also Robin’s disallowed (wrongly in my opinion) stoppage time goal for offside, and Dowd’s decisions on who to book and when. Perhaps the hometown advantage contributed; perhaps the midweek “how much did they pay you” drama also played a part. Whatever it is, I refuse to accept that we dropped points solely due to the refereeing crew.
I agree completely with Arsene that we panicked following the sending off; when we needed a captain/leader to settle everyone down and have them stick with things, we did not have one. I thought we worried too much about the injustice of the entire situation, to a point where it bordered on self-pity…There is a definite case for neither of Newcastle’s two penalties being given – perhaps the panicky, nervous nature of our play was what convinced Dowd and his linesman to award the pens. Bang on all you want about the referee – as I see it, we still should have won this game regardless.
While I do think we have a harder (but not hard enough) edge than we had during previous seasons, we have to be smarter than Vassiriki “Abou” Diaby was with just five minutes gone in the second half. Yes, the tackle from Barton looked bad, and yes, Dowd allowed him to get away with a bad challenge on Arshavin earlier…But you have to know that it is always the player who retaliates who gets punished. And when you put your hands on first Barton and then Nolan (who should have been booked for rolling up on Diaby and joining the fray), you make the referee’s decision that much easier. I understand our midfielder has been on the receiving end of some horrific challenges in his career, but surely, he has to know better than this.
We know who Barton is, and what he is about. He went into a rough tackle on Arshavin right after the start of the second half, and perhaps this was on Diaby’s mind when he reacted to the tackle on himself. Nevertheless, when we are 4-0 up, controlling the match with almost an entire half remaining, we cannot allow ourselves to be suckered in to giving the other side a way back. What we should have done is let the tackle pass without a reaction, play on, and then, towards the end, as the match was winding down, pay Barton back with interest…By reacting then and there, we fell for it and allowed Newcastle a way back into a match in which they weren’t even competing up to that point…
Before I forget, there was actually a match – and quite a fascinating one at that – this afternoon, so a summary of events should prove useful. In the first half, we were mesmerizing – we attacked with pace and precision. After drawing a blank in the Emirates fixtures, Theo got us rolling half a minute after kickoff. He latched on to an Arshavin pass, blew past two defenders as if they were standing still, and finished neatly past Harper. Just a couple of minutes later, Djourou headed an Arshavin free kick in, and then a few minutes later, Robin converted a Theo cross. Ten minutes in, a 3-0 lead, three shots, three goals. How was that for efficiency? Cesc and Diaby bossed the midfield, and we threatened to score virtually every time we took the ball into the Newcastle half. Robin got our forth on 26 minutes, tucking Sagna’s cross away, and should have added a fifth, grazing the post in first half stoppage time.
The Barton – Diaby incident will rightly be considered the turning point; for me, our first “uh-oh” moment came three minutes into the second half, when Djourou limped off, Squillaci having to come on in his place. Dot com reported a “knee injury” for the former earlier this evening – we shall have to hold our collective breath and hope this does not mean an extended lay off for him. I do not think it is a coincidence that Djourou and Koscielny bring out the best in each other, while adding Squillaci in place of either significantly weakens us.
Squillaci barely had time to settle before we were down a man. As much as I think he has been a poor signing and frankly a poor player for us, neither he nor anyone else in our suddenly-overworked defence got much help from the players. Where we dominated possession, we frequently found ourselves backpedalling and dropping deep, not situations where we are traditionally at our best. I thought Dowd went overboard on whistling for fouls when Arsenal had possession; certainly we committed our share, but there was a passage where it seemed like he was calling a foul on one of our players every 30 seconds or so.
On 68 minutes, Newcastle were awarded their first penalty when Koscielny was whistled for fouling Best in our area; I thought this penalty was soft, and I will characterize it as one which I wasn’t happy we conceded, but would have also been unhappy if the positions were reversed and it wasn’t awarded to us.
What did make me unhappy was Nolan shoving Szczesny to the ground in trying to get the ball for the penalty – he was booked (the first booking of the match for Newcastle, but so was Szczesn (for time-wasting, as I understand). Like Diaby on Barton, Nolan responded to what he (apparently) felt was a provocation by shoving his “antagonist”. In one instance, Dowd gives one player a straight red; in the other he shows both yellows. If he had booked Nolan for inserting himself into the Diaby – Barton fray, would he even have booked him for what he did to our goalkeeper? Regardless, this is something that we should have shook off and not let it affect our focus.
On 75 minutes, Best – who had earlier had a goal disallowed for offside (one thing that did go our way, as that particular decision looked wrong to me) turned the ball in from close range to halve the deficit, and we were clearly wobbling. Composure seemed gone, and we were all over the place. Eight minutes later, Rosicky – who gave us absolutely nothing after coming on for Arshavin – conceded a sloppy, lazy penalty, which Barton converted to make it a one goal game. By this point, I knew what was coming – Newcastle had already had a couple of chances to equalize when Tiote brought them level with a 30 yard strike three minutes from time. At this moment, I expected that we would concede another and leave with nothing, but we finally got a little attacking momentum. Deep in to stoppage time, Robin’s disallowed goal only added to the frustration and we left with one point instead of the three we should have had.
So from 0-4 to 4-4 level in the space of 22-plus minutes. Collapses such as this do not happen every day, and when they do, there are usually several contributing factors. As I said earlier, we got little change from Dowd and many of his decisions seemed to favor the home side. But we did ourselves no favors either. As Arsene said, once we went down to ten men, we lost composure, and after they pulled goal back, we fell apart. I have made a point of praising Cesc’s “leadership by example” method; the second half is an instance where we needed more than just that. We needed someone to organize, and someone to calm our players down, someone to tell them to not worry about Dowd, Barton, or anything else, but to stick with the task at hand.
Two of our bookings – Sagna (dissent) and Eboue (kicking the ball away) – resulted from frustration-borne-petulance. That tells me that at least a couple of our players minds were on the injustice of it all, rather than on defending/extending what was still a lead at that point.
This is also why I personally find Jack’s post-match twitter on Dowd so disappointing…I get that he – our entire team and most supporters – feel aggrieved about the referee’s performance. Fine – but what does he expect to accomplish by slamming him over twitter? We just dealt with four full days of “the referee versus Arsenal” controversy – can anyone say for certainty that it didn’t influence Dowd and his crew’s performance this afternoon? Only they can answer for certain…But just as Jack and his players are only human, so are the referees…This is an instance where I would prefer our players – and Arsene – would avoid talking about the referee. To his credit, I thought Arsene did that as well as he could in his post-match; he was clearly seething over what transpired. But do Jack – and any of our other players really need to call out the referees? As I have already stated, I think that is a long road to nowhere, and we have other issues to address – issues that we can directly control and improve. We can piss and moan about this particular decision, and that referee to our heart’s content – but if we cannot collective defend better, or react better under pressure, than we did today, will it all really matter that much in the end?
We have plenty of issues to deal with now. Not least of which is our first-choice centre half limping off just after half-time, with an apparent knee injury. Squad (quality in) depth was already an issue with our fourth choice centre half getting second choice minutes; if JD’s knee problem is serious, Squillaci becomes first choice while he/Tommy are unable to play. As we saw again today, Koscielny does not play well with Squillaci alongside him, and Squillaci does not seem to play well alongside either Koscielny or JD. Defensive midfield is now an issue as well; Diaby will, I expect, miss three matches – unless his red card is for something other than violent conduct. We have to hope Song is able to play against Wolves next Saturday; and if he is not, will Denilson’s hamstring keep him sidelined? What then? Eboue as defensive midfielder? These problems, combined with the leadership and composure issues that we saw – not for the first time – today suggest to me that our focus should be on trying to fix what we can with ourselves, and not preoccupying ourselves with the referees and calls (or non-calls) that do not go in our favor.
As bad as I felt at the final whistle, I would never have thought that a few hours later the day’s results would show that we actually gained a point on United. But with Wolves’ 2-1 win in the late kickoff, this was the case. Of course, Man City and the Spuddies gained two and three points on us and United, respectively, so we have to watch out behind us, not just look ahead. Nevertheless, as difficult as this afternoon’s result is to swallow, we do not necessarily have to look at this as a disaster. Folding a winning hand from a 4-0 position is always tough to take, but this result has not eliminated us from consideration.
Who knows what will happen from here…Perhaps we will win the league, perhaps we will not. Our players and manager will give us a much better chance of accomplishing it if they will stop worrying about the match officials and focus on what we can change internally. Dowd and his crew were poor today; but they were not an insurmountable barrier. We should have been able to overcome them and Newcastle to win this match.
Each of us will deal with this in our own personal way. I expect there will be a lot of bitterness and frustration towards the officials; I have vented mine here. But I hope it does not simply stop there – get the bile out of our system and then consider what we, as a team, should have done to see out this situation.
We cannot control how a certain crew calls a certain match, but we can be responsible for our own actions on the pitch – from reactions to provocation, to composure under pressure, to determination to win the match, whatever it takes. Improve those, and we will retain more leads than we lose…
Written by Oliver
morning all…
i still balme the officials, especially Dowd – with the diaby sending off, dowd should have blown for the tackle by barton, card issued and situation over. insted his lack of action made the situation worse.
yes, diaby should not have reacted and he deserved the red card but, barton is a cheating little runt who could easily have been off the pitch prior to the diaby incident.
A masterpiece of a post oliver.
Hi Kt, it is indeed a masterpiece, mine would have been a rant, rant and more rant – i am furious that yet again bad decisions have cost us a win and on the day that the manure lose…..
we should be 2 points behind them today and its hurts…
Hi rico.i don’t blame Dowd.he set a new bar of refereeing.i blame DENILSON.
Hi rico.we may have won yesterday rico but the mancs may have as well.who knows?the mexican chick may have come on and scored for them but that is that.
Messi scored a hattrick yesterday.this psychological blow wouldn’t have come at a worse time for us with the barca tie just over a week away.if they sense fear they’ll batter us again and our season will collapse am afraid.Aw likes praising his players for their mental strength,the time has come for them to prove it.
good headline, good post
morning all
i phoned the poilce last night..we were robbed..
niether pen was..ches booked for times wasting even though he doesnt have to give the ball back it was our kickoff it was our ball, nolan had no right to get it its upto the ref to ask for the ball back and ches had it for 2 seconds before he was headlocked and thrown..not exactley time wasting is it
rvp goal at the end was onside..50-50 benefit of doubt to attacking player…
dowds a tosser
anyway..not looking good for jD..
arse.com say its a knee injury, rumours are its his ligaments..gone for the season???
The English referees are an absolute shame, disgrace and embarassment. I never came across such biased, incompetent and ridiculously one-sided refereeing. Don’t they have any conscience to sleep after such horrific impartiality ?
Or is conscience wiped out by certain contribution ($$) ?
Barton with a potential leg-breaking challenge, go…es free, the fouled player gets sent off – no warning no yellow for Barton ?!?
hi jj
that is dreadful news about JD, now i bet he wishes he’d bought a CH, just what we all feared….
i dont think the psychological blow will be that bad
utd losing will have handed us the momentum back
what should have been 7 points is now 4 and after the manc derby next weekend it could be 2 or 1
i think we’ll be ok in the head v barca
its the team im worried about
no sagna for barca..no jd no tv..no nasri maybe no song
its not looking good we are dropping like flies
Class article…
Frustation..which hurt kills you the most – beating Newcastle four – nil only to see Man U scrape home a lucky win at Wolves or indeed toss away a four goal lead at St. James Park and actually gain ground on the leaders.
It is a choice, boys…
hi rico
yes dreadful news if true..
i think jd has been one of our success stories of the season
after all hes been through he finally gets a run and he shows hes one of the CB’s of the PL and then this happens..
i feel sorry for the lad..as well as us
we need to get lansbury back…
i do too jj, finally he’s got his career going, he has been one of the players of the season so far and now this…
i really feel for him…
This is very hard to take. Against how many sides should we fight. I know every one would say we must learn how to control games. That is also right. BUT sending off only arsenal`s player, many silly bookings for us, letting them go without their bookings and even their deserved red card, very funny penalties (not PL standard). through these actions is the ref. actually the only one who dictate the game.
Do not be harsh on Fab, I know for sure he would have done mutch more to try to correct the direction of the desicions of the ref. but he know he must be calm because the media issue about him and the ref.
It is not a disaster for our title challenge. BUT I hope there will be no psychological damage … difficult to repair. The next three fixtures should see us leading the table. Man united have three difficult games in a row. Song must come back soon, we need him a lot.
Now ESPN will put up that as a classic match.i don’t think ive ever seen a team bottle a 4nil lead!i sat in a dark room and just stared at the darkness…
hi per holme, put like that an yes, one point gained but the way we folded was very poor….
I am sorry but I have to disagree. If we had of had a ref that was intent on reffing and not dictating the game, we would have been ok.
The Diaby sending off was a joke and today I will be writing to the FA to ask for an explanation as too way the original offender never gets punished but the player retaliating always gets sent off.
Barton a hardman? Did you see the way he rolled around on the floor after being pushed? Pushed, not slapped or punched, pushed and why was Nolan not sent off?
The first pen? If that were given our way I would laugh and think we got given a gift. Never a pen and as for the second pen? Oh my days, I can’t understand football at all. three players jump, one decides to act like a fish out of water and bang, penalty.
Dowd needs to be punished and I am going to write too the FA saying as much. With his decisions yesterday he has opened his self to accusations of bias and cheating.
I am so fu&*ing angry with him from yesterday.
Ref’s are there to officiate not dictate.
KT, and we are in the record books for all the wrong reasons…
i am furious with diaby!
we are capable of imploding ktr
we are not built to defend like demons
once a team gets their tails up we do struggle
wbrom, spurs, newcastle
we do it sometimes but at least this time we got 4..
Imagine what may happen if we take a lead at the Camp nou?this blow has come at the worst possible time.i don’t know if i will be able to handle that tension…
agree will
dowd gave them two goals and let them manhandle us
double standards..
Just what i said earlier Will, if Dowd had dealt with the tackle by barton, situation over….
but, diaby is stupid to react…
the second penalty was never, just never!
Squillaci vs messi…
i think the first penalty was right, the second, never…. but, they had a good goal disallowed wrongly for offside….
I feel sick KT 😉
I hope the dippers beat the chavs….
first pen was never either
best dived
going form all the decisions it should have been 5-3
but if barton and nolan would have gone they wouldnt have had any
Rico, I am telling you, it was never a pen.
Ask yourself this, if the Newcastle player had been facing our goal with the chance too score, would he have gone down with that slight touch?
yeah come on liverpool
Did you hear the FA have a new sponser?
It’s Guide Dogs for the Blind, the Ref and Linesmen at Newcastle yesterday take delivery of them today!!!
C’MON Carragher!
Just been watching Parlour go over it, soft yes, but a penalty…..
Never a pen.
Was the player facing the goal? Was there a chance to shoot?
When we were finally beaten on our invincible run, we struggled to pick up, i hope the mancs suffer the same…
the fixture list really favors us over the next few weeks but i seriously worry who is actually going to play….
We’ll have to agree to differ Will 😉
Yes we will Rico because there was minimal contact and when I look at pen’s, I always question if the striker would go down with that level of contact if they were through, one on one with the keeper.
What do you think with the first pen?
I don’t care if the mancs lost.our result was such a tragedy.will our players develop a ‘us against the world mentality’?…i hope so.smash teams to oblivion irregardless of the referee.
Will, i was talking about the first one, the second was nevr in a million years…
I am talking about the first one. The second one is not even worth discussion.
no KT in short, not until we will something then they will know how it feels as a group, only then will they get the desire….
Why do we always concede from screamers?most of the time (9/10 times) those shots go to row z but against us they seem to fly into the top corner.
Rico thats why the CC final can’t come soon enough.
neither were pens
koz went for the ball he didnt touch best he put his leg between bests and best went ‘ronaldo’ to win the pen,
he made it look like he was hit from behind but he wasnt he dived and the ref fell for it..
theres a difference between being tripped and falling over someones leg…it wasnt a pen..no way
and the second one isnt worth talking about..
KT, at this rate we won’t have eleven fit to play, and the defence really concerns me too….
we’ll just have to agree to differ re the first pen, either way, that side shouldn’t have thrown a four goal lead and diaby should not have reacted to that little runt barton…
get up and walk away, the sending off gave them belief, with eleven on the pitch, even Dowd wouldn’t have stopped us winning…
JJ who would you start in midfield against barca?diaby’s first half perfomance showed he can be useful as his raw power and dribbling may be useful against the relentless pressing.he’ll also be very fresh.he however seems to dally on the ball at times.wilshere on the other hand can make one touch passes accurately to feet.he is also a warrior but at this stage fatigue must be kicking in.he may also get overwhelmed by xavi/iniesta.Aw will have to choose as song and cesc fitness permitting will start.
we’ll bounce back
we always do
depending on JD i think wengers biggest regret will not be what happened yesterday, it doesnt effect our title chances one bit..we gained ground we didnt lose any
wenger biggest regret could be jan..
having two cbs that cant play together will affect our chances…
I have written to the FA asking for clarification on the retaliation law. It seems to me, whenever there is any retaliation, the original offender gets away scot free and, I have asked for clarification on the difference of Diaby pushing Barton in the chest and Nolan grabbing Ches around the neck and throwing him to the ground.
Let’s see the answer (if there is one)
midfield will be standard ktr
song jack
theo cesc AA
its that defence im worried about now
sagnas ineligable tv out so is jd i reckon
defence looks like being
eboue koz stepanovs clichy
and that will get trashed
That’s if Song is fit….
You wait and see, Kos or Squilli will get injured against wolves or in the internationals and then it will be Miquel in against Barca….
One heck of a game to make your debut…..
In fact, I wonder just how many will go and play for their country and pick up an injury, if RvP does, as he usually does then we are pooped…
Stojkovic: ‘Strives for perfect football’
Arsene Wenger sees Nagoya Grampus Eight coach Dragan Stojkovic as the ideal candidate to eventually succeed him at Arsenal
“I’d love Piksi [Stojkovic’s nickname] to be my successor,” he told Vecernje Novosti.
“There are a hundred reasons for that. His football philosophy is almost identical to mine. Our ideas are the same and we both strive for perfect football.
“I knew he was going to have his teams playing attacking football with many passes. He has done that, showing he will be a great coach.
“I told him that if he could transmit his football imagination to his players he would fly high.”
Wenger revealed that Stojkovic, who has just won the league in Japan, is a regular visitor to England.
“Dragan comes to London at least once a year,” Wenger confirmed.
“We meet up, chat and try to outsmart each other.
“It’s a great achievement for him to have won a championship. I was a coach in Japan for two years and didn’t manage it even though I had Piksi, who was the best player in the league, in my team.”
Now do you guys understand why i was having a pop at Wenger yesterday?
Have to go for a couple of hours, catch you later…
i understand will
im hearing from a mate JD is out for 3 months..
waiting for arse.com to confirm..
JJ JD’s injury will be a massive blow!why us?…
im gutted.. 🙁
lets hope its 3 days 😉
Lets hope he only broke a toe nail…
This is why I was so angry yesterday. Wenger has let the club and fans down.
One man’s persecution complex is another man’s siege mentality.
Of course we should shout and scream when we are subject to injustice… The officials are there to administer the laws of the game; not defend a police state.
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing… remember that, and scream your heads off.
Rico,
I know I’ve been deleted from the list of HH writers, but moderation as well is adding insult to injury. 😆
morning all…thanks 4 taking comments, rico…think i am in minority re: refs here…i just think the constant harping on that topic gets us nowhere….
I’m sorry but what angers me today is our manager’s ludicrous attempt to distance himself from what happened yesterday.
Surely everyone knew that Pardew would give his side the hairdryer treatment at half time. Did Arsene not know why players like Barton and Nolan have a value to other Premiership clubs.
Having seen his one good central defender replaced by his ‘bargain basement/car boot sale’ replacement for Gallas he then loses his holding midfielder. So what does Wenger do ? Well he mutters, he rants at the fourth official and he shares a few pearls of wisdom with Pat Rice, but as a coach he does absolutely nothing. Our 4-3-3 has become 3-2-3 but not until Newcastle score does our Manager think about substitutions. And then who does he send on ? Rosicky and Eboue would have been better employed pumping up the tyres on the bus.
So I won’t be ranting at the players or the ref. This match was hallmarked ‘Wenger’ and showed in two halves all that’s good about his management and sadly all that’s poor.
Morning all,
Sorry Oliver, i cant agree with your write up, i honestly believe there are forces out there like the FA, who have Issues with Arsenal we get the wrong end of the stick every game. Any game we do win is all through hard work, most fans have said sticking up for ourselves is the way forward, i tend to agree. Being too nice has got us an easy reputation, players like Barton Vidic and the like can kick us as much as they like and get away with it week after week that has been proved, i believe we should start being the tough Arsenal. When they kick us we kick back harder, we know we will not be protected by officials so we protect ourselves. there is no doubt in my mind we are getting far to many bad decisions against us to know its fiddled, the FA have never made it easy for us, even our manager cannot say what he honestly thinks in his after match reports because of fines they impose, so its time to start inflicting the same kind of pain on the rest, turning the other cheek never helped anyone. Diarby may have been wrong, but when they threw our keeper on the ground, our keeper gets booked do me a fovour, lets start to fight back scratch kick and bite thats the way to go
Good morning!
In my opinion, we lacked humility and want to shine, because we could have done 0-5 and prefer that the player X score or score “brilliant” goal. One more goal and another time and the game was over and hsd finished any reaction. I’ll go over the arbitration biased and pointing out the following: a) continue to add even a yellow card and expulsion (in addition to injuries). Yellow cards will adding and players will be missed us … (effect of biased arbitrations);
b) in any opponent gives them the courage to turn any negative c) The effect on our team can also not be the best, lack of confidence and security to guard a precious advantage.
I still believe!
Steve, i respect your opinion, but disagree…i do not think there is any grand conspiracy against us…
We agree to disagree then oliver, but i have no doubts contraversy will follow us to the final in the Carling Cup.
i didnt used to oliver
it took me a long time to realise it but there is..
If we have any players left that is
yup steve
its starting
we are dropping like flies
im not even worried about the barca game at this rate we wont be anywhere near full strength for the cc
Hi Jon Jon.
Did you see Wengers face after the game, he watched everything he said Knowing the FA was hopeing for another pick up, probably get it from Jack eh
How can we say the FA is not against us?
steve
i bet jack gets done by the fa for his tweet..
chesney too..
it wouldnt suprise me one bit
If Jack gets done for this, we need to write as a group to the FA expressing our displeasure.
Dowd sent off Wilshere’s midfield colleague Abou Diaby in the 48th minute after he reacted to a challenge by Joey Barton by shoving the Newcastle player to the ground.
But Wilshere believes a later incident involving Kevin Nolan and Wojciech Szczesny, in the immediate aftermath of the first of Barton’s two penalties, was just as serious and should have seen the Newcastle captain receive the same punishment as Diaby.
Newcastle came from 4-0 down to hold Arsenal at St James’ Park.
In a post on his official Twitter page, Wilshere wrote: “Inconsistent refereeing needs to stop. its killing the game. if Diaby goes. what’s the difference between that and Nolan on our keeper!? £joke”
The criticism of the officiating could leave 19-year-old Wilshere open to Football Association action.
Going out for a walk to clear my head, but we need to get tougher and start spreading a bit of pain get booked for doing somthing as opposed to getting booked for fuck all, see ya later
chesney also tweeted
it was something like
im not going to comment..the ref was brilliant
JJ I bet he gets fined for sarcasm…
well he got a yellow for being floored so it wouldnt surprise me ktr
It is tim ethe Arsenal board come out and attack the FA. Take a video of the game and a lawyer and ask for an explanation as the ref was shocking.
How he can send off Diaby but not even talk with Nolan is beyond my understanding.
Boo…
Mike, sorry about the moderation, don’t know why you went in there 🙁
Excellent post!! Must have been difficult not to come out and attack the ref… or like a lot of these half-wit Arsenal blogs the manager and the team!! Funny how at least 2 of them had put out a 2000 word dossier minutes after the final whistle!! So called gooners that are more eager to see us fail than the Collymores of this world!! And fail we did.. but all is not lost.. we need to rally up and win the next 3 home games and i’m almost certain we will be top and all will be forgotten!!
Hi Cpt J
If it was the refs fault, not the teams fault and not wengers fault, who’s fault was it then??
For me it was a combination of all three….
Oh yeah of course it was a combination of all three!! My point is like the post suggests instead of looking for who to blame for a bad bad day we should just shrug it off… hard as it may be… and concentrate on the games ahead and make sure we don’t make the same mistakes!! I think over-confidence from scoring all those goals so early on also had a part to play in the result as well!! We highlight this game and use it as an example for future games and it won’t happen again!!
Afternoon folks,
Oliver, thank you for another top post, i know not everyone is agreement today but… we are all one thing and thats cheesed off with surrendring such a lead…
But we have been there before CJ, when will we learn 🙁
C’MON GERRARD!
Nothing to do with Diaby getting sent off, their player not getting sent off for doing worse and the ref giving them two goals then?
I must have watched a totally different game.
Dowd was brilliant.i blame denilson.
One of your best yet, oliver. I admire the restraint. 😉 It seems we are forever learning how not to collapse though. 🙁
Hello, rico, KT, Will. 🙂
howdy rico
we may not all agree but the one thing about the post is that it is a refreshing point of view..its not OTT either way
i think cpt pointed that out..
It looks like red nose added the sphere of fat to his ranks.along with webb they make an excellent partnership.
Reports from Switzerland are saying Djourou has a serious knee injury.he has apparently injured his knee cartilage and if true he is done this season.
hi agag,
jj i think the post is top class, its too easy to ‘blame’ only the officials – yesterday there were a multitude of errors during that game, afc are the authors of their own destiny and thats why we ended up with one point rather than three….
KT, that is the worst news and what we all feared, now we are snookered unles TV is ready….
Cpt John is right as is oliver in his post, we must learn and move on, my question is will we, i would have thought surrenderimng a 2-0 score to the spuds would have made us learn….
thats what my mate told me this morning ktr
i heard the switzerland rumour too on a couple of other blogs
i live in hope until arsenal confirm but it looks like wenger decision not to use the window is going to bite us on the arsenal
again
We may now see Vermaelen, make a remarkable recovery now Djourou injured, i must admit he lasted longer than i thought he would
i can see a situation where AW rushes TV back..typical aw styleeee…
then we lose both tv and jd for the season
the script was written in jan really but AW refuses to budge on these issues even though hes wrong on them every year 🙁
Your right there JJ, but the profits will look good at the end of the season, maybe he has a couple of cheapys in mind
Newcastle midfielder Joey Barton has branded Abou Diaby’s reaction as stupid after the Arsenal man was sent off in the amazing clash at St James’ Park on Saturday.
Arsene Wenger’s side were 4-0 up and cruising when Diaby was incensed by a ferocious but legal challenge from Barton.
He pushed him to the ground before raising his hands to Kevin Nolan, giving referee Phil Dowd little option but to send Diaby off.
The numerical advantage helped the Magpies score four goals to hit Arsenal’s title charge and earn a memorable draw.
Don’t understand
Barton, who scored two penalties in the amazing comeback, said: “I don’t understand Diaby’s reaction. I went in one-footed, cleanly took the ball and my momentum carried me into him.
“I think it was stupid from him. They were 4-0 up, there was no need for him to react the way he reacted. For me, it wasn’t an issue.
“If the Arsenal players don’t like being tackled, they should go and play basketball or netball or one of the other games.”
Tell you what JJ i still have my doubts about our keeper i hope your right about him
Aw really took a big gamble.we are a football club first and thats why we don’t mind that much about the balance sheet.there’s a reason we wear replica Arsenal shirts not RBS shirts.if we fail again Aw has NO excuse.
Hi Steve 🙂
Look on the bright side, if things get that stretched we can apply for an emergency loan for a CH 😉
I know i should not jest…..
Will, thats why next time we play against Mr Barton, we should remember that statement, and show him the respect he deserves
Will,
i really don’t like that little squirt Barton, he should go look in the mirror and ask himself a few questions about his own life rather than spend time talking about us…
ches was excellent yesterday
the score didnt reflect his performance one bit
KT, spot on, all we asked for was a big strong CH, we ask him to spend £50M, just 10-15M would have been enough, hardly bank breaking stuff…
Didn’t we all say this would happen??
I wish we had a Vieira, Adams or especially a Keown. Barton would be too scared to play against us.
Will diaby looked quite scary yesterday.
Hi rico, JJ excelent, he let four goals in in fortyfive minutes, hardly excelent, granted two were penalties but one of them was straight at him but the shot from 35. 40 yrds out has to be down to him.
Rico, weren’t we saying that the kos/squill pairing worried us….they’ll be our cb’s for a few weeks to come….
1-0 to the dippers, i hope they go on and score many then lose every game for the rest of the season, except against the teams in manchester 🙂
We were Lee and now thats exactly what we have, squilli best find the form of his life….. i’m praying that TV is very near a return, like next weekend…..
Great result for us…..
We need to re-call players asap…I just hope TV is nearing a return!!
i would have had a big smile on my face rico had rvp goal had stood yesterday, just a rye smirk at the mo
If only we had won.
It may be premature to reach to conclusions at this stage but torres’ move was unnecessary.their problems are from lack of creativity in the side.putting in torres in place of malouda further diminished this.accomodating torres won’t result in more goals just like a woman will take 9 months to deliver a baby.bringing 9 women together won’t result in a delivery in a month.the sum of the collective is less than sum of parts and thats wrong.
KT, that must be one of the best analysing ways i have heared for ages, now that has put a smile on my face
Indeed guys, had we won we would be further away from the chavs….
How the heck will we keep Zigic out in the CC final with our best heading defender out??
KT 😉
Rico, is Arshaven out as well then
1 horse can’t pull 2 chariots.one of drogba/torres must be benched.
Drogonius will just have to go then
Nte Nte all
Steve, AA v Zigic 😉
KT, on todays showing, Torres….
It was a poor buy rico.if drogba gets benched he’ll not take it well neither will torres.
Drogba is supposed to be on a list of five out in the summer KT, i thought that was a crazy article but just maybe it holds some truth…
we should go get him…
steve..
re your earlier
watch the game again… newcastle had 19 shots in that second half and only two got passed him
theres not much u can do about pens, its just a lotto
like i said excellent…he was making save after save after save…
no fucking way!!!!!!
ive just read that a french news source has said that interpol has begun an investigation into yesterdays game as serious money was exchanged in the fixture
apparently both dowd and ROSICKY are under investigation?????
gotta be a prank..gotta be…dowd doesnt suprise me but rosicky??? our rosicky????
and now theres two articles…
surley not???
jj, you serious?????
Sheeeeeet we may get three points after all 😉
rosicky was one who hassled the ref after the game, was that to try and mask it??? bloody heck, thats a shocker and can’t believe it…..
But, go check the second penalty, we all agree it was a shocking decision but who was involved??
dowd and 🙁 🙁
we wont get the three points rico..we’ll be under investigation… 🙁
bollox, forgot that bit jj….
jj, what now springs to my mind is
wigan
spuds
newcastle
and any other game that we lost with dodgy play/decisions…..
i know rico…
i know…
i hope this is shit..
well i dont i hope its true cos dowd was the ref in all those games 😉 i just dont want any arsenal boys involved…
the fa dont like wenger as it is..neither do blatter nor platini..
any truth in it concerning our boys and they will fuck us..
you and me both jj, but if TR is proved then its best we know but until anything comes out for sure then its just rumour i guess…..
you are right though, we will get the book thrown if TR is involved, just hope it’s only him, if him at all…..
bollards 🙁
I’m off for he day…
Nighty night all….
Morning….
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