Morning all.
It’s easy for me, you and every football fan in the world to express our opinions on management, coaches, players, even the tea lady but imagine what it must be like for a player who a club has spent vast amounts of millions on, when little seems to go right. We moan, the pundits criticise and the media go into critical overdrive.
Paying big money brings great hope and expectation. Ozil, Lacazette, Aubameyang, Pepe – Arsenal’s big money signings who all left for free after having had a mixed career in north London. Along came Rice and Havertz, one hit the ground running, the other has struggled. If we can see it, so can his teammates, and so can he. The harder he tries, the harder it gets – that’s just how life seems to play out.
I think we’ve all at sometime suggested, Havertz needs a goal. Well, now he’s got one….
On Kai Havertz goal and celebrations with the team…
I am really happy for the win but even happier to be part of something, part of a team that shows the human qualities that they have shown today, without me telling them absolutely nothing to show that and that empathy towards a player that has some question marks to resolve externally, they won me even more today, they’ve done in a really natural way, I am delighted they have made that decision, I’m so thankful to our supporters the way they sang his name, have made him feel in the way he has felt today and if there’s a person in a dressing room that deserve that, it’s Kai Havertz. So happy for him.
On what the goal will do for Kai’s confidence…
It will probably change everything, but first of all if he had any question marks about how we feel about him, how much we love him, how much we appreciate everything that he does, I think that’s out. I think in sport, Usain Bolt said it once, I have to train four years to run nine seconds, sometimes you have to do a lot and you don’t see that, but in that moment you see it, I’m sure what he’s been through in the last few weeks, this moment is worth every moment of the other moments.
The celebrations after our second penalty said it all didn’t it? Everyone was thrilled for Havertz, everyone, including the travelling Arsenal fans. I know it wasn’t from open play but a penalty doesn’t guarantee a goal. Hopefully now his 6” 4” frame will relax a bit more and we’ll see a much more influential player on the pitch.
A 4-0 win on the road is a great afternoon out for Arsenal. Three points, a clean sheet, but, it looks like Saka and Jesus picked up an injury. No doubt we’ll hear more about that from Mikel Arteta before the Lens match.
Yesterday’s fixtures threw up a number of strange results. Man City we’re beaten by Wolves, Man Utd lost at home against Crystal Palace and Aston Villa thumped Brighton 6-1. Totts and Liverpool played in the late game, a game which saw VAR fail to overturn a wrongly ruled out offside goal for Liverpool before Klopps team were reduced to nine men. I thought the Jones sending off was harsh as he got the ball before his foot went over the top of it into the Totts player.
Arsenal’s women kick start their WSL challenge today with a home fixture against Liverpool. Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema have both returned to full training after injury ruled them out of much of last season and once Leah Williamson returns, the team/squad will be so much stronger. None are ready for today’s match though.
Catch up in the comments.
I can understand the Jones red especially when you saw the still given to the ref but the yellow for a player tripping himself was the “mistake” that turned the game . I hear that the VAR team has been suspended for next week but surely the ref and linesman should join them.
I get the red card but don’t understand it when Jones got the ball first. What direction his foot goes in after that is a lottery.
As suggested on the old post, fine the refs for their var mistakes, it’ll soon focus them.
Instead of application of the rules ,and there’s plenty of those .We have a mass of arbitrary subjective decisions made. No one can be this incompetent, to me it’s bent officiating by the PGMOL and they’re running riot .
Time to get refs in front of a camera to explain their decisions. As things stand the Pgmo are a secret society and are answerable to no-one. Not fit for purpose.
Afternoon Rico and all, I don’t feel sorry for Liverpool, after all how many times has VAR helped them to win matches.
Let’s hope our new injuries are not too bad.
Retrospective action might look good on paper but the outcome of the match won’t change. It’s like the PGMOL apology, it’s worthless, in fact it almost makes thing worse.
Hi Geoff.
There is only 3 ways, that will force the ref to lift their game.
1 = The media have to start really reporting on clear mistakes made by the referees and VAR.
2 = Any club that loses a trophy or misses out on major championships have to take legal action against the premier league for compensation.
3 = A tv show were the official refs explained why he made the decision he did, and not some old retired ref making excuses for them.
At the end of the day the players have to take some responsibility and get smart and not give the refs a chance to give a free
My first thought was that if such ineptitude was displayed in non football life there would be a riot and questions in the house. Then I thought of HS2, the NHS, House of Lords , Border force , RNLI , the Mayors of London , Manchester etc and the House of Commons itself. Why should we expect our referees to be any better than the rest of the officials in this basket case of a country.
0-1…
11 th in the table,….
Not a good start for the women.. Especially having already been knocked out of the CL..
Europe have won the Ryder Cup though so I’m happy. Very happy.
When you put it like that Potter….
Afternoon rico, House. What a weekend of sport. Ryder Cup was great, we were up at 6.30 watching two days, and today was nerve racking at one point but we came through. No one now talking about missing mercenaries Poulter, Garcia and Westwood, and lovely Luke only got the job after disgraceful Stenson jumped ship. After bad sportsmanship by Cantley’s caddie yesterday, today was even sweeter.
Add in Arsenals great win, a few Manchesters losing, also Liverpool (but shame it was to Spurs, I wanted a draw really), it’s time to open a celebratory bottle or two of Cava
Afternoon Andrew, great comment..Absolutely spot on. 7-30 for me though. 😆
Rico, well written and yes to all you said. But maybe i digress. Arteta has to learn to be efficient with his key men. You are leading 3-0, and you are keeping Saka and Gabriel on the pitch late. First, Saka was a doubt before the match and you have a very important match against City in days.
Anon, (give us a name)
We’ve talked about that on here before. Subs and Arteta needs working on. Rice and Saliba were doubts before the game too. Plus, before City, we have Lens.
Just read a story that ESR was upset after the match because he failed to score, I personally don’t think he has anything to worry about, for the brief time he was on the field he did well, and the goals will come.
Good morning all.
I was initially disappointed by our team’s performance in Yesterday’s WSL game against Liverpool. It was disjointed, lacking in penetration and without much accuracy in goal attempts.
It then dawned on me that there were good reasons for that, most of our squad had been away on international duty for weeks so their pre-season had been disrupted. In addition, there were several new signings on display and we are still missing three of our most important players, Golden Boot winner Beth Mead, England Captain Leah Williamson and record goal scorer Viv Miedema. Just taking those three out of the equation makes a huge difference.
I’m quite sure that our coaching staff will be working overtime to knit the hole squad together and there will be a big improvement in the next few games.
The FA Player coverage was quite good, the only draw back was the solo commentator who, by the end of the game, must have been surrounded by a herd of back legless donkeys. .😒
Shows he cares Geoff.
Cicero, I think Liverpool players had a proper pre season too. Hopefully things will improve otherwise Jonas could be in trouble…
54,000 fans for the game though, brilliant for the womens game.
Just watched 5 minute highlights of the ladies match, they had a few good shots on goal, as Rico said 54,000 looks like the ladies have a good following
Rico that’s why I like ESR, not only does he love playing the game, but he loves the club as well
Agreed Geoff. Just why I love seeing academy players make it, and be given an opportunity to do so.
14 apologies so far from the PGMOL
,We have received 2 that have gone against us, Martinelli against united and Toney v Brentford. . Brighton have lost out 3 times out of 3 , Man u have won 2 lost 1 , Spurs have had 2 out of two go their way and Liverpool are 1 -1 .
You can certainly make the case even if a bit churlish that the points that we lost had a bearing on our second place finish, but so it always has been before VAR you just grumbled and got on with it. Now the weight of evidence is showing up the inefficiency of the refereeing structure .Perhaps we need to look at how the other European leagues manage it as we don’t hear about things going so awry in Spain , France and Germany and anything that happens in Italy is clouded by possible outside influence.
I never thought that under Riley they ever wanted it and I believe that he did all he could to undermine it but we are now stuck with it and it’s not going away . It seems that the Liverpool v Spurs VAR team were involved in Saudi a day before making a few bob perhaps they were a bit jet lagged following their 7 hour return flight.
Anyone else having problems with their comments?
It’s the people using it, of that I’m sure. These people should go through a disciplinary process just as anyone else who makes continual mistakes at work would.
So far 14 letters of apology have been sent , Palace , Villa , Man U & Brighton have been involved 3 times , Arsenal , Spurs , Liverpool and Brentford twice with Chelsea , West Ham , Newcastle , Fulham , Forest, Everton , Man City and Wolves once.
Palace 2 in favour 1 against
Villa 2-1
Man utd 2-1
Brighton 3 against
Arsenal 2 against
Spurs 2 in favour
Liverpool 1 -1
Brentford 2 in favour
Chelsea and Fulham won and West Ham , Newcastle , Forest , Everton and Wolves lost out.
Can’t help wondering how many more there will be.
There’s a problem with the comments section guys as all are going into moderation because login details aren’t saving as they usually do. I’m trying to find out why..
Is this ok?
I logged in using the e-mail address option and then pressed the reply button
Has it kept you logged in Cicero? Or did you have to log in on your next attempt?
Test
It didn’t keep me logged in.
I have received an e mail from WordPress asking me to confirm my subscription to Highbury House. Seems a bit of an odd request..
That’s weird Cicero.
I’m still struggling to comment without going through the login process…
Testing
I’ve altered the comments box a bit so now, you only need to add your name. Not perfect, but better.
New post up now.