Morning all.
Short post this morning just to refresh the page..
The time wasting saga rumbles on after last weekend’s matches. Sky Sports have done a breakdown of who got booked and after how long. The range is from around 4 seconds to Arsenal’s 23, or rather, Tomiyasu’s 8 seconds. I’d imagine circumstances play a part in the lower number range, when teams are trying to hold onto a victory or even a point late in the game. I think the overriding factor is, all managers ask for is consistency. Good luck with that I say because consistency and referees have never been as far apart as they are now. Paul Tierney will officiate our fixture against Fulham on Saturday. I however will be on my way to Devon for a week in the rain. Lol
The rest of news relating to Arsenal is transfers and who will be leaving before 11pm on the 1st September. Despite Mikel Arteta telling the world Gabriel is set to play many games for his team this year, it hasn’t stopped the media speculating about him leaving. Had he started the first two fixtures, I doubt this story would be doing the rounds although it’s not stopped suggestions that Thomas Partey could yet be sold.
Unless Arsenal already have agreements in place for replacements, I can’t see any big departures. Tierney, Balogun, Lokonga, yes, but not the players who’d played a huge part in us finishing second last season. It’d surely take an enormous offer for Arsenal to even think about selling what I would call first team players/squad.
A week today, the Champions League draw takes place and for the first time in what seems like a lifetime, Arsenal’s name will be in the mix. We’ll be in pot 2 along with Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Atletico Madrid, RB Leipzig and Porto so we will avoid them until the knockout stages. However, our group will contain one club from pot 1 which has Sevilla, Barcelona, Napoli, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint Germain, Benfica and Feyenoord. There was me thinking we’d got rid of Kane but what are the odds it’s Bayern who join us in our group. Pot 3 and 4 are where the final two clubs are drawn from but we won’t know for definite who those clubs are until the qualifying rounds are complete but so far, pot 3 will definitely include, Shakhtar Donetsk, Red Bull Salzburg, AC Milan, Lazio and Red Star Belgrade while pot 4 will include Union Berlin and Lens.
Clear as mud?
So, we have Fulham at home on Saturday afternoon followed by Utd at home the following weekend and then it’s the international break. Sigh…..
Catch up in the comments.
Good morning Rico.
I read today that Pepe is being urged to accept a deal to sign, permanently, for an unnamed club in the Saudi league.
Morning Cicero, fingers crossed he takes the advice. No one seems to want him.
The transfer stories are purely rumour and counter rumour put about by agents and journalists and frankly boring.
The time wasting thing is a blind for the same journalists to cover over their unwillingness to call out Coote for his ineptitude and to plainly say the Ayew is a cheat.
So Champions League and an international break are on the horizon , no doubt we will get a difficult group and Southgate will play Saka for as much time as he possibly can . Effectively nothing changes .
Still the success of last season has increased the pressure and the optimism , this is evident by the fact that I got a last minute appointment cancellation for an MRI scan on Saturday , I put my ticket on exchange and it sold in less than 1 minute.
Nothing serious I hope Potter.
Agree re what you’ve said, nothing has changed as far as officiating goes and favouritism. Webb says a lot but does little really.
Time taken on throw-ins hold up and disrupt the enjoyment of the game.
My solution which does not involve yellow cards: there would be a strict 6 second (or perhaps 10) limit counted by the assistant. The call for going over would be simply a foul throw and change of possession (no yellow card).
Brian
Good idea Brian.
Brian not a bad idea, the other thing I was thinking was to change the rule so the clubs have to designate a throw in player and only he can throw it in, or once a player picks up the ball to throw it in, he can not put it down for someone else.
I don’t see any reason to change the rules on throw-ins, as players and coaches will eventuality get the message that time wasting will be punished with a yellow card, they will naturally stop the practice and the game will be speeded up.
Just a thought, referees add thirty seconds to “added time” for bookings, so if a player wastes fifteen seconds before taking a throw and the ref books him the total time wasted becomes 45 seconds. Where’s the logic in that? 😕
With Partey starting our first two EPL matches and Gabriel coming on to make telling contributions in both I think the message from Arteta is clear, both are part of his plans for this season. When Mikel doesn’t want a player it’s pretty clear to me as Soares, Tavares, Pepe, Lokonga and Balogun have discovered. You are banished from the main group, that has not been the case with Big Gabby or Big Tommy.
There are potentially two spots available in the squad that can be filled by new signings or players we can’t shift? Holding might fill one of those spots as it’s looking unlikely that he’ll be sold and he trains in the main group. Edu probably has a couple of deals in the pipeline if we can shift enough of the ‘excluded ones’ it’s also logical not to name Timber in the 25 this side of January and that would free up another spot to maybe take someone on loan?
Brian, that’s exactly what I was thinking as well, it lessens the punishment but would definitely speed things up by calling a foul throw. Coaches would soon be onto players to speed things up.
If they leave the wasted time rule as it is, then the first person with the ball should be done for time wasting.
Tierney – loan to Real Sociedad
Not yet confirmed by Arsenal JM.
Jesus has trained fully for a week and Arteta says he is “ready to go”. I don’t see him starting tomorrow though. Start with Eddie, he never scores when he comes off the bench, but often does when he starts.
Afternoon guys, new post up.