Morning all.
To say I’m disappointed after last night is an understatement. We could so easily have been 2 or 3-0 up before Pepe gave us the lead. VAR were quick to spot an offside against Lacazette after Pepe had scored, we rattled the woodwork again. All after Saka had hit the post within minutes of the game kicking off. Perhaps VAR should have reviewed the tug on his shoulder which came just as he took his shot.
Pepe’s goal was superb. He won the ball and then showed the kind of trickery which has been missing from his game to go round two Wolves players before a fabulous right footed shot beat their keeper.
Then, as halftime neared, a minute over the allotted two minutes added time, ‘that’ incident occurred. Yes we should have been smarter, seen out the closing seconds of the half whilst protecting our narrow lead but if Pawson and VAR truly believed that little incident in our penalty area was a straight red card offence against David Luiz, then something is seriously wrong in the world of football officiating.
It’s easy to say Luiz should know better and that he shouldn’t get himself into such a situation but in my opinion, he made absolutely no contact with the Wolves player at all. If anything, anything at all, it was the Wolves player’s backlift of his foot which made a slight touch on the knee of Luiz.
Yet, as already said, if one watches the replay of the first Saka shot which hit the post, just as he’s about to shoot, he’s pulled back by the Wolves defender which in my opinion, is much clearer to spot than the David Luiz incident. As was the blatant ‘wipeout’ of him in the box later in the game.
The official FA rules state:
Where a player commits an offence against an opponent within their own penalty area which denies an opponent an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and the referee awards a penalty kick, the offending player is cautioned if the offence was an attempt to play the ball; in all other circumstances (e.g. holding, pulling, pushing, no possibility to play the ball etc.) the offending player must be sent off.
Fine, I get all that but where is the pulling, pushing etc etc? Nothing and nowhere!
Marc Clatteburg’s view:
This type of incident is accepted as a penalty and yellow card. Referee Craig Pawson and VAR Jon Moss got it wrong. The law was meant to see players sent off after conceding a penalty only if they had deliberately fouled an opponent to deny a clear scoring opportunity. Arsenal and Luiz should feel aggrieved
Mikel Arteta:
If there’s any contact, it’s him [Willian Jose] with David. That’s what I’ve seen, but I don’t know if they have a different angle of what I have or maybe what you have. That’s where the disappointment is coming from. It’s hard enough to win football matches in the league and those big decisions are like that, but there’s nothing we can change at the moment.
Did VAR let Arsenal down?
Well, it was a big decision and if they make and justify that they got it right, I will put my hands up and apologise, but the only thing I’m seeing is that I’m sitting here and I cannot see any contact, and that’s really, really frustrating because it was a big, big moment in the game.
It’s a massive moment in the game and I’d be thoroughly peed off if I was Mikel Arteta. I’m not him but I’m thoroughly peed off.
Only one of the above was deemed to be punishable by a red card, yet which one is the least severe? Which one wouldn’t have caused a player to drop to the ground as if he’d had his legs taken from under him by a bad challenge? Of course Mike Riley and his merry men are impartial!!
Bernd Leno was a prize plonker for having a rush of blood, racing out of his area and then clearing the ball with his hand instead of any other part of his body his sending off didn’t cost us the game. It didn’t help, of course it didn’t as with just nine players on the pitch, scoring an equaliser was always unlikely but 11 v 11, maybe his rush of blood would never have materialised. Either way, he’s now banned for our next fixture. Arteta said Arsenal might appeal the red card for Luiz.
Apart from looking like a school boy needing instructions on how to take a free kick and the wayward to Gabriel, Runasson made two decent saves but I sure as heck hope Ryan is fit for the Villa game.
Up until that 48th minute, I thought we totally bossed Wolves in every department and as said, could so easily have put the game to bed a long time before their penalty. That’s no one’s fault but our own for missing the opportunities we created. Just as we missed a chance to nick a point at the end.
Mike Riley 121 Arsenal 0.
See you in the comments.
VAR and Referees have never been in the support of Arsenal, if you see clearly when an opponent Arsenal VAR would consider applying but when Arsenal does score the would consider that likewise with fault arsenal commits are VAR are used but when its against Arsenal VAR are never used the same with the referees. How i wish Arsenal players could put in the mind that VAR AND REFEREES are never on their side but against them.
Gave me a headache reading your comment Chris, ngl
Morning. Too annoyed to comment further, your write-up rico says it all.
Shouldn’t need to worry about VAR, they should just do their job properly. Moss should be the one facing a ban, not Luiz.
I think we’re feeling the same Andrew.
The whole Stockley Park thing reminds me of teaching grandkids how to do maths . It’s not the answer that’s important it’s the way they work things out.
An actual quote by @btsportfootball’s Peter Walton: “The idea of VAR is not to actually come to the correct decision “. Just interpret how the referee made his decision. Meaning that if from the ref’s position it looks a foul then VAR has to back him up . “” Madness “”
https://streamable.com/h70l1s Jon Moss for us , Graham Scott for the other. No consistency..
Nobody will ever convince me that VAR/Video Ref improves the game.
Any game.
Goal line technology and others if the sort should be utilised, but nothing else.
Wastes time but often doesn’t get the right decision so what’s the damn point?
Thing is, that’s how we’re going to be playing from the get-go next season, extremely well. I’ve not been so disappointed by a ref’s decision for a long time because we’ve not been good enough to really care about. We were last night. Peace.
I think it’s time Referees and “VAR” start being accountable with serious bans and penalties for their reckless(at times intentional) mistakes otherwise this is no longer football but hate for some teams.
Decisions of this nature has gone against Arsenal too often. As much as i tend to put all the blames on the officials, Arsenal players dont show that collective effort in contesting some of this decisions, yesterday Luiz attitude was bad, it helped the referee draw conclusion that he was guilty of the offense. I expect arsenal players to contest every decision whether it is wrong or right, that is the only way some of this decisions can be overturned.
Trouble with VAR is that it’s the same idiots making bad decisions, who’ve been making them on the pitch. Until Riley goes, I can’t see much changing. Inconsistent officiating is ruining the game.
Hi Rico and all every time I see the replay of Liuz red card it looks to me that the Wolves player was already falling over, the referee should have gone to check the monitor on the side of the pitch but was red card happy when it come to our players.
At least it is only 1 week for both players
That stream is excellent Potter. Really highlights the inconsistency with the rules, or rather how there interpreted.
I have long since advocated for referees to be sanctioned or banned for couple of games. You are not allowed to criticize referees for getting it deliberately wrong. If you do, the FA fines the manager or player for bringing the game into disrepute, so where is the fairness. Referees can get it wrong and be biased towards certain teams and get off scot free. I watched that game and have been trying to find the contact between David Luiz and Willian and I’m still looking. Absolute bias from FA referees.
Some interesting comments today Rico, you can see that the PGMOL inhabit a world that only they understand, you can see this by the utter confusion their decisions cause to fans in general. There was a time when we all understood the rules, it’s what made football so popular in the first place, but the powers that be are doing their best to complicate a simple game.
But I’m going to move away from the inadequacy of the referee and VAR and look at our performance, because for 45 minutes we were superb, easily one of our best performances of the season and maybe a window into where Arteta wants to take us. Referees are human and as biased as everyone else and as Arsenal are the team most northerners dislike and all our refs are actually northerners, we’re going to suffer more than others, but this team is showing signs of rising above the dishonesty The is rife among the officials and that is heartening.
Some of our long passing, to bypass the press, was excellent and I’m so glad we’re moving in that direction, we have the players who can take advantage. A few passes were overhit but in general it’s a tactic I like because we can become a bit bogged down with all the tikki takka out from the back.
It stretched the Wolves defence and we ended up pining them into their half as they retreated to stop the long pass, from there we played our tikki takka in their half and but for some bad luck and poor finishing we would have been out of sight.
The refs in England are so fortunate they’re not officiating in Nigeria my country, they would have all retired long before now, I’m sure they would not have been able to stand serious spanking from the fans, Pawson and Moss should be bleeding seriously….they’re really lucky i must say.
The two minutes of added time cost us, because Luiz should have maybe been more conservative and focused on his positioning rather than trying to be Ronaldinho in midfield, Wolves exploited the gap, it was poor game management and it cost us dearly.
All defenders make mistakes, Rob Holding makes them but he is lucky, Luiz is not he has the Mustafi disease in that every big error he makes results in a goal/red card. We can’t afford defenders like that and I think we need to move on from him as a player. I know he’s popular among the squad and with Arteta and if that’s so important then give him a job on the coaching staff, but not in our defence.
The speed with which Pawson went for his card was astonishing. Why didn’t he take a moment to review it on the screen? He couldn’t possibly have seen any contact whatsoever from his position. Having said that, the official in Stockley Park endorsed the decision immediately which makes it clear how much consideration was given to such a vital moment in the game.
Peter Walton, in the studio was more interested in David Luiz’s past record and was very keen to absolve the officials of all blame. No wonder we are all pissed off today.
Contrast Luiz’s actions with the brutality of what Fernandes deliberately did to Xhaka’s Achilles a few days earlier when the ref gave him complete licence to do what he wanted.
Awful.
I’m sure Willian Jose didn’t intend to kick David Luiz on the knee – but we’re told intent is irrelevant. If intent is irrelevant, it’s a free kick to Arsenal because Jose kicked Luiz and not vice versa. If intent is relevant, it also follows Luiz cannot be penalised.
Southampton went down to 9 players and conceded 9 goals, we went down to 9 and almost got an equaliser at the death, that’s a positive to me because the players’ heads didn’t go down, we kept in the game.
I thought that Wolves were a poor side and a lucky side, if Moutinho scores another goal like the one he got yesterday then it won’t be until he’s retired and over the park and playing with his grandchildren.
I think our players will be more angry than anything and hopefully they will channel some of that frustration into our next game and maybe Martinez will have a stinker?
Welcome to those joining here for the first time. Seems we all agree, the officiating last night was dreadful.
Kev, I too thought we were superb in that first 45 minutes and it shows were heading in the right direction. It’s all pretty positive imo, and once Arteta gets more of ‘his own’ players, the future really does look good. I know we took some financial hits last month but Edu really did a good job offloading the ‘deadwood’ from the squad.
Potter sent me the photo which is in the post Adam, some of the challenges on our players which have gone unpunished are disgraceful. Yes, no wonder we’re all cheesed off today. I bet Arteta and Luiz are seething.
I too hope it inspires the players for the rest of the season, starting on Saturday lunchtime.
The only people who thought Luiz should have been sent off are that prat Walton, Pawson and Moss and anyone associated with Wolves FC.
I’ve watched the incident many times, I can’t see any contact, just a bloke looking to fall over. I saw Arsenal have lost the last 4 times Craig Pawson has been the ref. Him and Kevin Friend are the worst. Even Mike Dean is preferable.
The Aston Villa game becomes massive, as Kev says loads to be positive about.
I’m off to play online scrabble, starting with a nice easy six letter word
ROBBED
Mike Dean isn’t all that bad compared to others so I totally agree Limey.
I always believed in team sport as a useful devellopment tool for young people . Apart from gaining enjoyment , if handled correctly by coaches , teachers , parents etc it taught how to accept both winning and losing.
This however has now gone . Cheating to succeed is now order of the day.. Had we walked away from Molineux last night and lost 2 – 1 and had it been because they were either the better team or perhaps a stroke of luck went their way , we could shrug our shoulders and accept the result .
However that is not what is happening . There seems to be a concerted effort of bias to undermine our club.
I sent that collage of 4 pictures to Rico last night whilst I was seething , in my opinion 3 were fouls and one was accidental but only one received the maximum censure and that was the accident .
The most galling part is that 2 of them happened no more than 2 yards away from the referees assistants who quite clearly can see the incidents but did nothing.
We now have a referee , 2 assistants , a fourth official , and 2 on television monitors and still they don’t do anything .
I can only conclude that there is more to this than meets the eye and is a long , long way from the merits of the game that I fell for .
Football is fixed. and the referees are using VAR to their own ends .
Well said Potter.
As always, it’s not the loss, it’s how we lost and that was taken out of our hands. The PGMOL, or whatever it’s called needs reviewing. As someone said earlier, they need to be accountable.
Afternoon Rico and the HousRico thanks for another very good post.
With some of the good coments you have summend it up perfectly.
I see that we have just registed our squde for the Eurpa league.
It shows 3changes they are
Ryan for Runerrson
Martinelli and Odegaard for Mustafi and Kolasinic.
Makes me think Okwanko could be 3rd goally.
Arsenal appealing the red card . If they get it too little too late , damage already done.
Afternoon Rick, thank you.
Phew, no Runasson. It’s a shame he didn’t go out on loan.
At least if we win the appeal it’ll prove a point but as always, the damage has already been done. Perhaps fixtures should be replayed when glaringly obvious mistakes are proved to have been made.
This is where i fill we are missing David Dein since he left us we have been treated like orphans whom every one would come and do what they want on them and go without blame or punishment, so there we go. The only way out is to utilize all our chances in order to wait for wins,
We shouldn’t need to have an influencer at the club, it’s up to the officials to all sing of the same hymn sheet. There are far too many inconsistencies in the game.
Good for Southampton, they’ve requested neither Mike Dean or Kevin Friend officiate any more of their fixtures.
Its not a question of having someone of influence in the corridors of power. I would hate that because that is something I would not want. I want to win games by my ability.
I feel that had we taken our chances we would have been out of sight by 30 mins. We could have been 3 to 4 nil up by then. If we dont take our chances we lose. its that simple.
The contact was there, but it was the other way round. Their striker touched Luiz. And imo it should have been a yellow to the Wolves player. For trying to con the referee. Ungentlemanly conduct. Not a penalty and neither a card. The wolves player made a meal of it and got away with it.
Seems like Runarsson may be playing against Villa. Apparently our new keeper is injured and unlikely to available.
I make no comment
Oh well, just have to hope the outfield players are in good form. Especially the defence.
There used to be an argument from some fans suggesting we shouldn’t rely on officials decisions as the Arsenal must be better than that.
I’d argue that point all day long as it was ridiculous imo.
The proof is in the pudding-you can not beat biased officiating.
Potter……. The Bias agenda against Arsenal has been around since Mike Riley was the ref on October 24th 2004. KO @ 15;00 at Old Trafford.
It will continue until the day he retires, as he is the overlord to the rest of his fonies, and they will obey. Just listen to Walton’s words on BT after the game. Laughable.
If you can possibly get a copy of that game have a look at the outrageous officialdom of above said creep.
I have been watching football for over 60 years and its the worse refereeing performance I have ever seen. Case of bias against Arsenal/towards United I have ever seen.
The way he allowed the United players to literally kick Antonio Reyes was despicable.
Rant over.
My comment for today:
We watch the calls for sportsmanship and respect before, during and after the games. According.
Yesterday, everyone saw Southampton playing with 10 players since the 2 minutes. If 11 v. 11, there is already a difference between the teams, with one less, the difference is accentuated. MU reached the break to win 4-0 and in the 86th minute at 6-0, when there was a 2nd sent off, I think that’s correct. MU reached 9-0 until 93 minutes (in 7 minutes !).
Where’s the so-called “respect”? Such a result is humiliating especially for those who, after 86 minutes are playing with 8 and still concede 3 more goals. If ethics, perhaps it would indicate a “diplomatic” victory of 3 or 4 to zero, given the circumstances, without humiliating and respecting opponents, scoring (and I don’t say suffering) 3 more goals, after the second sent off, is more than humiliating, it is outrageous.
It is part of Football, being 11 v. 11 and it is the quality and other factors of the teams that make the difference; an unbalanced and, above all, humiliating game for one of the teams, it ceases to be football and ceases to be a game.
No matter we think or say the official will never make the refs responsable for bad mistakes so the only way we can respond is to go out and thrash our next opponent.
as I said before with the speed that both the ref and VAR said red card for Luiz what is the point of the VAR monitor next to the 4th official if they are not going to use it.
Matt Le Tissier:
Never thought I’d fall out of love with football but thanks to the standard of our PL officials it’s happening. I naively thought if they had replays to help them they’d make better decisions 😂😂😂😂
Morning all,
I would get rid of the var official. Let the ref take a look at the screen and let that ref get all the biased blame after checking it and still awarding it.
Secondly, the offside rule should be clear light between the players, anything less isn’t really an advantage is it.
Lastly, I wish the penalty rule was really enforced, the foul must prevent a goal scoring opportunity, not ‘there was contact anywhere in the box’.
2 clangers from Martinez v West Ham.
Mikel chose wisely.
Sue, I said for years you do now want this in the PL, and i was shot down every time I said it.
Again, and I said this all along, it’s not the technology that’s at fault, it’s the way it’s used.
The rules change every year to accomodate the technology when it should be the technology helping to enforce the rules.
When human opinion or influence can play its part, there is absolutely no point using it.
Spot on there, Scott. This just highlights how incompetent our officials are even more!!
What pi**es me off, is how they get away with it all the time. Some of their mistakes have been huge, really costly! They just shrug their shoulders with that oh well attitude and onto the next fixture.. I’m glad we’re appealing the red card.. if I’m honest though, I doubt we’ll be successful..
And good on Southampton for requesting a ban on 2 refs!
2 clangers from Emi?! I didn’t watch it, was too busy with MAFS Australia (yes I’m still engrossed in it 😂) Our game on Saturday will be very interesting, gutted Leno will miss it!!
And what about Brighton?! 🥳🥳🥳
Good Morning Rico and Everyone.
Its a hilarious situation in the EPL with VAR officials. In Italy and also in Germany its the ref who goes to the touchline and looks at it himself. The ref does not stay in the ground. Its the ref who decides not some hidden moron with a hidden agenda who tells him what happened.
Sue, MAFS??
Oh, lift your game hahahaha
I believe the rules make our appeal a no brainer as awarding the penalty means only a yellow card is awarded, but that won’t stop those bastards!!!
Morning Devil, all.
Personally, I think VAR is a necessity in football and it would work much better if the operatives are not referees in the PL.
How can anyone expect an official, who totally cocks up many decisions on a Wednesday night whilst holding the whistle, to get it right three days later just because he’s watching a game on a monitor?
The problem is the personnel imo, not the system. Take a look at the stream Potter posted yesterday, see what happens when it works properly.
Scott. Married at first sight 😆
VCC , it was happening long before Riley , although he certainly raised it to a new level. There was the 1991 brawl with United Started by McClair , result Arsenal 2 – United 1 but points docked.( great barracking of the F.A representative ) btw.
Then the 2007 league cup fiasco where Eboue and Adebayor were mixed up and Arsenal took video evidence of the referees culpability . Again Arsenal were punished and although subsequent comments from Chelsea , Wayne Bridge in particular , were seen to bring the game into disrepute only Arsenal got fined.
Vieira and Keane were built up as mortal enemies by the media , but it was always Pv4 that came off worse in the back rooms of the F.A disciplinary committee as strangely did Wenger when he clashed with Fergie.
For reasons that I can’t fathom apart from , I do believe that sections of the press realise that criticising Arsenal sells copy, I am sure that their constant bleating leads the agenda . We get a bad press and the results rather like Luiz’s sending off are preconceived ( ask Walton ) .
They have to see that we get punished rather than hold their hands up and say “” Sorry we got that wrong “”
If The Premier League and other leagues don’t start doing some thing about their referees.
I can see the top clubs leaving and forming their own league with or with out FIFA support. and they will other better pay and take the best officials from around the world with them.
A new post is up.