Untold’s “not within 100 miles” preview more than spot on

102 Replies to “Untold’s “not within 100 miles” preview more than spot on”

1. Good work Walter (as ever). Now, if only all Arsenal fans rallied together to attack the common enemy and relentlessly highlighted these injustices rather than fighting each other over the rights or wrongs of the manager….

2. Tony and Walter: I know it is against your house rules, but the article I wrote for Positively Arsenal in the aftermath of the Emirates Cup is as valid today as it was then.
   http://positivelyarsenal.com/2014/08/05/referees-give-arsenal-a-fighting-chance-please/

3. A mention also please, for the blatantly wrong foul throw call against Alexis.

   How often is a foul throw called in football? What excuse does a referee have to get that wrong when the throw is perfectly taken? None. To me, this is the most clear ‘proof’ that Taylor was deliberate in his attempts to cost Arsenal.

   Especially because he’s done this before. Remember the Sunderland game where Arshavin wasn’t given a penalty for a blatant push and it finished 0-0? At around the 60-65 minute mark in that game, when Arsenal were building momentum, putting them under pressure, Anthony Taylor gave a foul throw call against Clichy to kill that momentum.

   This was precisely how this foul throw call was made in this game too. To kill momentum.

   It cannot be an error, since how does a referee imagine something that isn’t there? He can miss something, but if he’s hallucinating, then has no business being a referee. Not that he does if he’s cheating, which with that evidence, it appears he is.

4. Yes their third was a truly blatant foul by the thug Shawcross, Crouch seemed to be given free reign to assault players, the Cavemen set out to intimidate Sanchez from the first minute, and Chamber’s red was ludicrous, especially considering the actions of the neanderthals.

5. But why is it we sit and whinge about it and let our heads drop, but other teams fight fire with fire?

   You can’t blame that referee for that defeat, we were utter shit in defence and midfield.

   Their last home result was a defeat to Burnley FFS.

   We let ourselves get pushed around by STRFC, we have no Vieira, Petit, Adams or Keown to put these carthorses in their place.

   Who’s going to do it for us? Cazorla? Ramsey? The Ox?

   Too much silk and not enough steel mate.

6. Quote of the day from Walter:

   “Probably his hair fell in front of his eyes and he was blinded.”

   brilliant mate!

   Notice how close Taylor was every incident.Facking pathetic.Like Walter says…
   Even if AFC were a load of kack in the first half, the ref should be judging to the law not some agenda.

   COYG!

7. Harry

   I felt during the match that we were doing remarkably well to not let the referee get to us. As an example, see how calm Chambers was when Crouch pulled him down to the ground. On a few instances ALexis laughed off the referee’s decisios. I don’t think he threw us off our stride and I thought that was a good show from us.

   I don’t blame our loss on the referee. We had some horrible defending to thank for the first half score. Not closing down the cross, and not tracking runners was a problem. But I blame the referee for not doing his job competently, and I would argue, fairly. Especially once we scored our second goal, and I think he was one of the reasons we dropped all three points.

8. This needs to go to the club for them to act.

9. Harry Barracuda,

   Are you new to this? Did you just started following how the refs treat Arsenal? How many players did we end the game with? What do you think would have happened if we adopt your idea of doing tit-for-tat? How many yellows have we already received this season despite having far fewer fouls than most, if not all, other teams?

   It is easy to blame the club but when Chambers got sent off for 2 of the least offensive fouls of the game you may need to reassess your criticism.

   Just sayin’.

10. Walter,
    Yet another demolition of an inept and biased match official (of which there are legion).
    But what is missing to the problem is the solution

11. Great post harry but it wont go down well on here.Would we of been bullied by stoke if we’d had the 2002 team playing now.No ,the likes of petit and viera would of won the battle first before playing them off the park.Our team is skillfull but are full of weak midgets like cazorla who are brushed aside when teams get physical.Who buys all these weak players surely he has to take some of gthe blame .We have no backbone just like our manager!!

12. What is the Arsenal Board doing?
    What action can be taken by the League Managers Association? Or the RSPCA?
    Arsenal must be protected.

13. Nicky Yet another demolition of an inept and biased match official (of which there are legion).
    But what is missing to the problem is the solution.

    The solution is to have players who will fight fire with fire and not be bullied off the park.A big imposing no nonesence central defender and a beast of a defensive midfielder would be a start ,a bit like we had when we were winning titles.

14. Bravo, Untold, excellent work! I’m sure you could find more incidents of dodgy refereeing from that match alone. Hopefully one day we can get to the point where all contentious or bad decisions are highlighted in this way.

    Also, it would be great, as someone suggested, if you could compile this into one video, perhaps adding some commentary, written or verbal, and then uploading it to sites like youtube, so we can really spread this.

    The ‘foul throw’ against Sanchez reminded me of a game where Chambers was yellow carded for incorrectly entering the field of play, or something ridiculous like that. Sure, the ref may have technically been correct, but why are these arcane rules that are very rarely used only ever applied to Arsenal?

    It looks like teams are targeting Sanchez, maybe because they see they can get away with it, in the same way that teams used to target Wilshere for rotational fouling. Sanchez may be a real fighter, but I fear for his health every time he steps out to play for The Arsenal.

    And for some reason it seems Chambers is being targeted by the refs. God knows why, usually England internationals are protected. I remember last season Gerard got away with quite a bit, in one game he conceded a penalty against us, but wasn’t even booked.

    It’s stunning, the media is full of supposedly intelligent and unbiased people, and yet none of them found the performance from Taylor anything out of the ordinary.

15. Harry, I think you’ll find the sport is football, and not rugby or wrestling. If those are more to your taste, feel free to watch them instead.

16. Good article, and certainly true on all counts.

    What to do, I certainly would not like to see our team resort to the type of challenges and unfair play that they themselves have to endure every game.

    Surely the club officers should be busting a gut in this direction. It is not the manager’s role, often I am amazed how Arsene can keep his cool in post match interviews.

    Maybe it is due to his unbelievable skills as a manager.

17. Nick Lee,

    The referees won’t allow Arsenal to fight back. Phil Bardsley cleared Alexis out with a proper reducer, but the foul went against Arsenal! Chambers got sent off for two tiny fouls, one of which shouldn’t have been called in the first place because Crouch was fouling too–but Charlie Adam nearly popped Alexis’ head off and stayed on the pitch!

    If Arsenal played as thuggishly as Stoke, we’d have ended the match with seven or eight players. The issue here is not about backbone, it’s about crap refereeing.

18. The talk of Vieira and Petit is redundant, Taylor would have sent 1 if not both off.

19. And we would of still beaten stoke even with 9 men then.That’s how far we have regressed as a club.

20. There was also a time before Viera and Petit-odd how that doesnt come up too.And Veria made mistakes as well, as Manure sang about for years.
    Typical AAA: Santi one minute is a hero now hes being slagged off.

21. @El Gringo,
    I share your comment to Nick Lee.
    He has the right idea but unfortunately the match officials would card our players left, right and centre.
    Video assistance and an appeals system is the answer….until a robot referee is invented for on the field (preferably deaf to avoid hearing Rooney’s continual whining during a game).

22. What is the agenda of these referees? Is Arsenal easy to dislike? If you watch the video of Wenger being jeered at Stoke you have to ask…why he is being jeered by Arsenal’s own supposed fans. Things going wrong… why not support those on the pitch, or it is just easier to boo than to cheer. Spend the f**king money? Can you imagine the mercenary badge kissing rats that would join? Buying into this model of success is buying into brutal natural selection. The rats eat each other until only one rat is left… king rat. The biggest fattest most aggressive of his breed! And then the rat leaves for better pickings, imagining all manners of slights.

    Can I offer another view? Arsenal, is like the ‘good’ boy in class, it’s easy to sneer at his nicely ironed shirt and his carefully packed lunch. Never mind if he lives just a block down the road; he is just so … good… and so virtuous… Reminding everyone of their failings by just existing? Saving while others spend and the most hateful – still getting up no matter how many times he is pushed down. I don’t think it’s a natural football reaction that explains this hateful behavior towards Arsene and Arsenal. It’s not natural because Wenger time and again shows how his loyalty to football leads to the right players joining and staying. Because for years we’ve not had the money to compete the ones who joined came for footballing reasons and put their lives and often their smashed limbs on the line. Many would have crawled into a bottle if in Diaby’s position I bet any prospect will think twice about joining if we just tossed him on the scrap heap. I cannot imagine why Ozil would play on despite being in pain… on his salary it would have been easy to just preserve his legs and his career.

    Is Arsene or Arsenal always right? Maybe not. But I’ll take the fourth place, the jewel of the stadium, the pipeline of great players coming through, and a trophy once in a while. The Arsene Way I can watch the team I love play the way football should be played, like jazz… and watching Sanchez slalom through the Stoke defense reminded me of Henry. If it had ended in a goal it would be on the greatest list for anyone who loves football. Instead this week we have this hateful howling mob enshrined in the collection of Arsenals most shameful moments. And the biased referees will just get bolder.

23. Semeotist, smart post.More please.

24. what there needs to be is a system that allows clubs to question the ref. Womewhere where Arsenal can take the match video and show all the incorrect decisions and bias of the ref.

25. Semeotist: you are absolutely right. It is for all those reasons that I love this club. And it is why the wins will be all the sweeter, should they ever come again.

26. Harry Barracuda – no blame just amazing predictions!!! Dinamo should try this!

27. Foreverheady you can bet Sillers rock buns we will win again.

28. Will- there is a place for complaint. They fine you & say you’re bringing the game into disrepute. It called the FA. An organisation that looks after the Game by appointing a closed shop PGMO to officiate in Englands top league. The only justice is to get worldwide publicity of Untolds work. It will start questions outside the control of the FA who point fingers at Quatar when they are as bad if not worse.

29. Taylor’s bias is amazing and yet his practice of it is rather poor because he disallowed a Stoke goal and gave us a penalty. So he’s obviously a bit inconsistent with his bias. Not bias, just incompetence. Sure Stoke should have had a red too but Chambers should know better than to grab someone even if it is fairly innocuous. Plenty of refs would have given him a yellow, some would have just given him a lecture but Chambers is a bit foolish to do that anyway.

    There were other bad calls in both games yesterday, one involving Swansea yet again being unfairly penalized. There must be a conspiracy against them too!

    Unfortunately our defence made some naive errors and Stoke exploited them and deserved their win. We move on.

    Wenger has predicted a league title by 2017. So I’ll wait until then. In the meantime let’s hope we can do at least better than fourth.

30. KW: so resolutely more English than Madeleines, but the same function. Usmanov as Sir M-D?

31. foreverheady, Usmanov? Thats the way of Stringham! .) (not banned over here!!

32. forever thats supposed to be a smiley that didnt come out( ie George banning them over at PA),the lesson of the day is not to do five things at the same time.

33. Nicky – video ref was used in the past and the corrupt Sky with interest (share holding) in 5 clubs cooked the video. WE got more punishment with selective footage.

    I have more faith in Quatar giving us a more honest deal than any of these UK based set ups.

34. @semeotist, I have every sympathy for Diaby’s plight but I don’t think such emotive language as tossing him on the scrapheap needs to be used. Plenty of players careers are ended or severely hampered by recurring injury problems and teams let them go, after all football is a business, not a charity. Yes I’d love to see Diaby be the great player he could be but I think if Arsenal let him go he will have a very healthy financial foundation for the rest of his life and won’t need to scrape by.

35. There was also an incident where Oxlade-Chamberlain placed his hand on Diouf’s back, not even a push, and Diouf promptly rolled over like he’d been shot. Surprise, surprise, Chamberlain was shown a yellow.

    Compare that to an incident early in the game where Giroud was fouled, I think he had his ankles clipped, and Taylor ignored it. I remember the commentators saying big men like Giroud need to be stronger, therefore that wasn’t a foul.

    A few minutes later Crouch was rolling around after a small nudge from Chambers and the same commentators were saying how defenders can’t touch anyone, because if they do it’s a foul.

36. Rupert – both the disallowed goal and the penalty were given by the respective assistants.

37. Excellent post from semeotist.

    Following on from some thinking I’ve been doing: we know the FA and the PGMO see football as entertainment. I wonder if they like keeping up this story of Arsenal being a bunch of softies. The like this story of us not liking it rough (ooo, matron), and not liking the rough and tumble of teams like Stoke, and they like the developing bad blood between the clubs. It’s another story that sells, like a soap opera.

    @Menace, 9:49 am. Absolutely! No one is allowed to criticise the PGMO. Why are they beyond criticism? Is it because they are perfect? Not even managers are allowed to criticise them, why? Who else, if not managers, is qualified to criticise them?

    Any manager who raises any doubts about the PGMO is given harsh punishment, thus oppressing any criticism. These are the tactics of North Korea and the Nazis.

    @Rupert Cook, 9:52 am. The Stoke goal was disallowed because one of the Stoke players (I think it was Diouf) was interfering with the keepers line of sight, it had nothing to do with him being on-side or off-side.

    The goal was correctly disallowed. The problem is that this rule is inconsistently applied. Here is the rule itself:
    https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jCFSxim4YPk/UtK-rDmCmvI/AAAAAAAAGY0/RoET231dC1g/w573-h321-no/fifa+ruls+on+tiote+goal.JPG

    The penalty was debatable. Sometimes those are given, sometimes they are not. It was like the Man City penalty against Everton, sometimes they’re given, sometimes not. And besides, that was given by the linesman, and not the ref.

    Rupert, if you really believe that Taylor was not biased in that game, then I suppose you’ve never seen a biased ref in your life. To me and many others it was obvious Taylor was at the very best badly, badly off form.

38. Swansea… at least they fight back. All we get from Arsenal is silence. The club appear to be soft touches for their agenda, perhaps Swansea are as well..
    If the media and motd (sat version) wont highlight choke holds, and lord knows what else, the club should. Wenger used to be up in arms over such things, it seems even he has been silenced. I fear this silence is a pragmatic business decision, which if so, is very hard for a fan to understand, but guess like it or not, a business is what we are. As for players who will retaliate and enforcers, I think it is certainly worth a try, after all, not as if we dont get enough cards as it is, and such a player might help prevent a few injuries, and maybe even make opponents think twice, a lot of the dirtiest players are complete cowards when they are likely to get it back. Footballisfixed, if you chose to believe stuff on there, have suggested that Wenger is a bit of a romantic, and myopic to systemic corruption, IF this is true, hate to say this of a man of his knowledge and experience, he needs to wisen up a bit on this front, corruption is all around the game. Maybe he knows all about it but believes he can take it on in his way and does not want to give players an excuse to underperform.
    The players sometimes seem unprepared for these refs, by all accounts our ex Utd striker was completely baffled at some of the decisions, he shouldnt be. An analysis of the referees should be as important pre game as analysis of opponents……ok AAA, lets not go there on the second point!
    On an off topic note, a sad day for the AAA, the great manager that is Owen Coyle has slipped through their hands and taken a job at Houston.

39. Semeotist, some great points, and probably a lot of truth in there, but there was a time when any team trying to rough Wengers players up would have Vieira or Keown onto them in an instant. I take the point about the amount of reds such Arsenal players would get these days, but I am curious as to why he has completely abandoned what was a very successful game plan. Not as if those guys went around breaking legs, their presence meant they did not need to, and perhaps we are missing that in todays EPL climate

40. because he disallowed a Stoke goal and gave us a penalty.

    Rupert

    Both were decisions given by the linesmen. Taylor didn’t overrule them, but he didn’t give those decisions.

41. Another excellent article Walter. The Stoke match was a horrible experience for all supporters (apart from the scheming AAAAs) and must have been even more horrible for the players and manager – who have since had to endure a further horrible jingoistic campaign by the media and AAAAs.

    We did not defend well, there is no doubt about that, although I thought there was a foul by Crouch for the first goal, but would need to see it again & so far have not felt like reviewing it.

    When playing Stoke we need to be aware we are playing against well practiced cheats, who, with the connivance of a biased ref will go far beyond the rules of football to win. In this case it was not just that Stoke wanted to win – it was as if they wanted to destroy Arsenal and AW – it was as if they were the evil tools of the equally evil PGMO and media.

    Crouch, Adams, Walters & Shawcross – what a collection of thugs, to name but a few.

    The damage caused by the disgraceful Taylor is not yet over – we will be without Chambers for the Newcastle match.

42. Having read some of the ref reviews over the past year on the site, it’s not rocket science that something is seriously wrong within the PGMOL, at least from the point of view of the fans. Like the rest of the fans, I have questioned the fact that, since 2006 maybe 07, the decisions have got weirder and no one can actually pin point as to why this is the case. I will hold the board responsible for this because if our players are being assaulted, which affects their play resulting in dropped points and not to mention the injuries, the manager is under pressure, then the club should take a public stand on this. They have more access, more resources to take the attack on the respective organizations. What would a couple of bloggers who run untold and other sites know what’s what? Fans screaming at each other, abusing each other, for what? Is there any foul play? So, why is the broad / club not doing anything? By the looks of things, the club does not see it that way what so why should they do anything? With these thoughts in mind, yesterday I had a Archimedes moment. Not that I ran staked naked, as I was doing the dishes. But I thought the WHY THE HELL is the club not doing anything? Maybe, just maybe the club is doing so intentionally? What if some of the board member don’t want AW and want him sacked? and they know that AW is all too powerful and they are not? He even sat for Ivans interview and sanctioned the appointment, so they know that Ivan cannot sack AW. AW has his fingers in all the pies maybe even more, so how what to do? Could it be possible that they are allowing this to happen, in the hope that the fans / results go against him and he tenders his resignation? Because they know that the only person who can sack AW is AW himself. I know that it sounds farfetched etc, but, stranger things have happened.This seems to be the only rational explanation to the current predicament.

43. @nick Lee,

    After having watched Chambers walk with a ref card, after having watched Gibbs get a yellow for exhaling, do you still believe that a beast of a dhee ehm would last 90 mins??….

    ARSENAL are limited in options regarding this. But we fans can do a lot. Referees should know they are being watched. Put pressure on them. 60000 at the Ems is not a small number. We can make the difference.

    But alas…… Most of them are busy trying to get the managers head. High horse riding @#$%#.

44. Interesting view Gouresh, but I personally believe the thought of replacing Wenger is enough to put the board in a collective cold sweat. When the day comes, it will be traumatic, possibly cause ructions, destablising, not to mention costly.
    There are not many on that board who have great knowledge of football, they would maybe have to bring in some consultant who does.
    The board and owner are a conservative bunch, perhaps to the annoyance of many fans, even if there were those who do not wholly approve of some of Wengers methodology, they will be aware of the incredible stability he has bought the club during turbulent times, and will most likely continue to do do.
    Some may not like this idea, but it think it is far more likely they will be more interested in extending his deal than covertly forcing him out. The owner clearly worships the ground Wenger walks on

45. I saw a still of the wresting armlock by Adams on Sanchez (taken from the opposite direction of the video clip above, so you can see it more clearly) and would like to think that the still prompts an FA investigation. Just how the hell is such crap “football”? I remember that Wenger once described Stoke – in the aftermath of Ramsey’s broken leg – as playing rugby. They’ve got a new manager since then, but the style hasn’t changed that much, has it?

46. wow semeotist that was cool,@Rupert cook can not believe it you have made my Xmas@Quincy who cares anyway he is a freshman.

47. Both the penalty and the disallowed goal was because of the assistants stepping in.

    I just wonder if both of them were so disgusted with what they were seeing on the field (= the bias of Taylor) that they tried to give some counter balance to what was happening.

48. @Quincy I have no idea whether Taylor is bias or not. Neither do you. He may be or he may be totally incompetent. The standard of refereeing is poor throughout the league, let’s not pretend otherwise. I suspect if any other teams in the league did what Walter did they’d find ref bias against them, that’s the nature of supporters. I have come away from every Oxford game I’ve ever been to bemoaning the poor ref decisions because that’s what I chose to see, one tends to criticize rather celebrate a correct decision because we expect the latter to be a given but officials are human, which of course means they could be driven by bias. I’m not denying that but as I have seen numerous awful ref decisions for most, if not all, teams this season then there is either an epidemic of prejudice or incompetence. As I said before only video evidence will help to eliminate this problem.

    @Shard and Pete, fair enough point but then he could overrule them if he wanted Arsenal to lose. To be candid he didn’t really need to as Arsenal were doing the job for him.

    This bias against Arsenal is odd and seems to obliterate any other reason for our rather average start to the season. As yet I’ve never heard one logical reason for a conspiracy against Arsenal. There’s no need for a conspiracy to stop us winning the league because we don’t have the squad to do so anyway due to injuries and the defence being inadequately stocked. There’s probably a good reason for the latter, there must be.

    Anyway I’m quite pleased. Wenger’s target is to win the league by 2017 so we now have a definite aim which I have wondered whether we have had for some years now beyond finishing fourth.

49. @ Mandy Dodd

    I don’t think that the owner “worships the ground Wenger walks on”, Mandy. He’s a shrewd businessman; in all probability he hasn’t got where he is today by being sentimental, let alone a fan-boy. We’re all disappointed by the result of the game at Stoke, Wenger probably more than anybody else. Sure, the refereeing was poor and some of the Stoke players were violent, but we did lose concentration in the first half. We have some fantastic players, but they haven’t so far consistently gelled as a team in the way that we expected during the summer, due to a variety of factors no doubt. Until recently, it was typical for Arsenal to have a successful autumn and then falter in January/February/March, and perhaps we’ll see a reversal of that this season.

    Yes, he makes mistakes, and sometimes his tactics are wrong, but I prefer Wenger to any other manager around.

50. We can talk and curse but nobody will care as long as we don’t have some two or three individual on the FA(Fuc..n A…..les)committee.
    I meant to say Frenchman ,

51. Mandy Dodd is correct.

52. oh for a Vieira now, or Alex Song for that matter!

53. Yes, he is a businessman Michael S, but in interviews, Stan seems to almost get misty eyed over Wenger, possibly suggesting there is more to it than the vast amount of money Wenger brings into the club…or maybe he is just being cynical?

    On another note, will be interesting, and a barometer of fairness and a consistant approach from the FA …to see whether they charge Bet365 Stoke’s Charlie Adam for his neck hold, and if not, why not. The FA may yet surprise….but we can rest assured if Jack or Kos had done such a thing, it would be all over MOTD, all over the papers and there would certainly be a charge and resulting ban.

54. There are far too many who get misty eyed over Wenger, which is fair enough. Time to offer Wenger the General Manager role and recruit a Team Manager, hopefully from within.

55. Mandy ,I only watched a replay of MOTD , it was a sanitised portrayal of the real thing . To get a head of steam you need the media to plaster the situation all over papers and T.V. and as we are all to aware that is unlikely to happen.

56. I see Piers Morgan is at it again.

57. Great post Walter.

58. Anthony Taylor is utterly useless as a referee and not only against Arsenal.
    I have watched many other PL matches with him in charge and he’s been terrible against other teams too.

    That said, his gross incompetence or bias against us is staggering and it would most defenetly bring about an action from any other club facing it but apparently not Arsenal FC.

    I can only think of one reason for Arsenal and Wenger for not fighting back,
    and that reason is the obvious deficiencies within Arsenal squad not being addressed by Wenger season after season.

    It would be so easy for any pundit or a fan with an anti Wenger attitude to say ‘ sure the ref was poor but Arsenal were even poorer’ .

    As a matter of fact that’s exactly what’s been going on for years now.
    In every game Arsenal get terrible decisions against them , there are events leading up to those decisions clearly within the club’s control.

    From where I’m sitting there are at least three main reasons Arsenal have been poor in big games;
    1. Lack of proper signings to strengthen certain positions we are all aware need strenghtening .
    2. Lack of proper tactics on numerous occasions.
    3. Terrible refereeing.

    Number 1and 2 are within Wenger’s control, whilst Nr 3. Isn’t.
    It would however be an excercise in futility to complain forcefully about one of those aspects when the other two are so plain for all to see.

    The reason it was so easy for SAF and it is so easy for Mourinho now to successfully complain and or manipulate PL referees, is because no one can ever come back at them with the aforementioned Nr 1 and 2.

    Every time Mourinho complains about referees, schedule , parking the bus or the ball boys not getting the ball back into play fast enough, everyone knows it’s just gamesmanship but they also know he did his part to the fullest.

    Can the same be said about Wenger?
    A resounding NO!

59. Thanks Walter.

    I hope you’ll be able to post more videos of these assaults and incorrect decisions in future articles, and maybe some more from past games.

    I’m amazed at those suggesting Arsenal players should retaliate by kicking the opposition. Have you not noticed that arsenal players don’t have to do anything wrong to be penalised? Has this very article not pointed out the shenanigans? Are you completely blind? How do you think Arsenal players have a reputation for multiple cards and sendings off’s?

    How about complaining?
    You can rest assured complaints are made. They’re not made public. After all, Wenger, the Board, etc, have been thoroughly fkd over – for years – daring to point out anything that goes against the Sky/PL narrative.
    Arsenal FC won’t get into the corruption that’s going on, so they must be punished. If Arsenal started to “pay off” the thugs they’d be exposed, immediately.

    Exactly how many leg breaking tackles have been visited upon Alexis this season? How many of those assaults have resulted in cards or even free kicks? How may of these are shown on MOTD? (C Adams assaults weren’t shown. Why were they not shown?)

    As many on here have already written: watch the full FA Cup final in order to see the template for reffing Arsenal’s matches.

    Good post, semiotist.

60. Speaking with a stoke fan at work, much Missed by the camera. He did say at a team when Arsenal come we raise our game, however Arsenal play below themselves.

    It’s always the same, why should Wenger expect anything else at Stoke.

61. @Rupert Cook
    Understand your point about Diaby and those whose careers suffered from a ill-timed injury. I think Wenger sees something in him that we haven’t but had but for glimpses. I know he is a different type of mid but I did once hope he would be Vieira lite, but now I’m just being romantic old fool.

62. I think arsenal should employ people to show these statistics with videos for every single team in the premier league. Then show how much bias is against arsenal on an arsenal channel. And if anyone disapproves then tell them to show more evidence. It’s just not fun to watch football with all this corruption!!

63. Rupert, I understand that as supporters we have bias ourselves watching a game. I still struggle to see how anyone watching Taylor would not see a very incompetent performance, which should see him demoted at the very least. I struggle to see how anyone neutral observer would not see that the vast majority of decisions went against us, to put it mildly.

    If you’re still not convinced, Rupert, then there are the referee reviews that Untold does, and that’s exactly the purpose of them, to look at matches objectively by qualified referees, and to publicly disclose how each decision was analysed. And the results of those reviews are well know to Untold readers.

    Of course you can argue that Untold’s reviews are biased. Other websites or individuals are welcome to do their own referee reviews, and use their evidence to argue otherwise. As long as they do it all publicly, and they don’t hid behind layers and layers of secrecy, the way the PGMO do. As long as the PGMO (and FIFA) remains a secret and dictatorial organisation it will only increase speculation.

    Don’t forget, long before Mike Dean became head of the PGMO, he was widely suspected by many Premier League fans to be biased in favour of Man United. Do you remember those days? Why was a man who was not seen as impartial made the head of the referees association?

    I do agree with you that the standard of refereeing seems to be slipping in the Premier League, and that the only way to settle the debate is to use video technology, which Untold has been calling for for a long time. Ok, and also to make the governing bodies like the PGMO more transparent.

    ___________________

    As for the specualtion over why the club is so quiet about bad decisions, my opinion is that Wenger has already tried to fight poor refereeing publicly, and we all know how that turned out. He felt the back-lash from the Authorities. If anything, it probably made the situation worse. I don’t think Wenger made himself more popular with the PGMO, the FA and UEFA every time he pointed out injustices. It only makes it worse that the press have always been against him.

    My take on it is that the club has given up the fight. We know how dictatorial the PGMO is. I think the club has decided to just live with all the bias, as fighting against only makes it worse, both from the PGMO and the FA, and from the media, who will take any opportunity to bash Wenger, call him a whinger, someone looking for excuses, etc.

64. How can the players compete when it’s not being reffed by neutrals.

    The Adams foul was astonishing.

    Week in week out the same thing is happening, poor decisions by the referee and the assistants.
    But it’s not only the arsenal matches.
    Read the match reports from other games and you will see referees are influencing Games and the results

    We have to ask why

    Is it incompetence

    Is it on orders from the fa

    Have the big betting syndicates from the far east managed to get inside the system.

    Something is wrong with the way matches are being officiated and arsenal are being sinned against the most

65. Quincy ruperts in his own little world he’s stuck under a well all he can see is the sky!

66. If Die hard Arsenal supporters ans fans dont get furious at what Taylor had done, how can Wenger win that battle against the media. Our own fans will be the first to attack him.
    Remember when they said that he was with no passion and should be like Morinho and be full of fire, and when he went into a fight, with morinho, to defend his own superstar (Sanchez), most Arsenal fans said they were ashamed, and he was frustrated. They dont support him enough, they dont defend their own team on media (if allowed) and blogs. Just a few will stand for him (UA, PA, …) And then what? They are afraid to be calld

67. …. They are afraid to be called moaners and biased on front of their friends who support other teams. Remember the Nani red card? If the United fans were in our place and seen what taylor made (specially when he so obviously cheated in the red card and foul throw), what would they make of it? What would any team fans do? I was furioua, and at 30min. at half time, wished our players leave the field, it was so much for me!
    No matter what we did or how badly we played, there must be anger at the ref, it was obvious tilting of the field. What else do you need to see it? That tackle on Sanxhez which resulted in a free kick against him ( and set the kick em out stanse for stoke), how could that not be total cheating?

68. The rubbish about Stoke raising their game is not quite true. PGMO raise the stakes by the official appointment. Arsenal with an honest official is better than most EPL teams. Wenger is a very intelligent man & has been pushed into an uncomfortable position. He will conquer all the handicaps. He is not ready to move on as his team is still being built. He will win the EPL & CL before he moves on. This is despite the band of organised vengeful people that were outed cheating in Europe.

    Do not lose faith in Wengers football methods. He is the best because of the amount he puts in.

69. Good points Yassin. Some ‘fans’ are too worried about trying to push Wenger out the club. If Wenger opened his mouth to point out injustices, not only would the PGMO and the media get on his case, but the WOB would use that as an excuse to bash him too.

    These WOB say they put the club first. Good! Then stop bickering about Wenger and support the *club* when you see our team being treated unfairly by referees. Fine, have a go at Wenger for being incompetent, past it, or whatever, but don’t neglect to point out the bad refereeing that is affecting *the club*. Get behind the people who try to point out the bad refereeing, that has nothin to do with Wenger, that’s just supporting the club.

70. “our” guy gary…
    https://twitter.com/GaryLineker/status/541685030247219200

71. @ AAA Cook 9:52 am

    “Wenger has predicted a league title by 2017. So I’ll wait until then”

    If only he had predicted that you’ll stay in the sewers until 2071. I guess we’ll have to wait

72. If I were a betting man I would have made a tidy sum by now!!!The previews are spot on most of the time.

73. The abuse of Wenger appears staged or dubbed. The swearing is more Italian than English.

    If the abuse were true ten using the term fans is incorrect. They are cowards who hide in anonimity.

74. Let me get this straight, the referee scored those 3 goals in the first 45 at the Britiannia? If you’re honest the 4th should of probably stood.
    I’d agree the officiating was very poor, but not nearly as poor as our performance. We lacked everything required to capitalize on Chelsea’s dropped points over the entirity of that match. Over the course of Wenger’s Arsenal reign not sure I could pinpoint a flatter 45 min spell than the opening half on Saturday. Regardless of score.

75. The players are fed up with the biased referees hence the poor performances.If you go into a match knowing that the referee will be out to get you then im sure u would be demotivated as well.Even Mourinho wouldn’t cope with all the bias and corruption.

76. I don’t know how Walter manages to sit through 90 minutes plus of this charade analysing the decisions.

77. Spartan

    That may be the biggest piss take i’ve read in sometime.
    Our players are demotivated to play due to a refereeing conspiracy?
    Mate there professional’s.

78. @Steely Oleary,

    Awesome analysis,

    So lets get going, I like your mind:
    1- their 3rd goal was a foul.
    2- so we should have been 3-2 anyway had the offside goal been given. So we should stand a chamce to equalize and get a point, then the ref decided to red card chamber? So yes the ref was responsible for whatever.
    3- Had the ref been fair, Crouch should have been red carded before the second goal, so does other players.
    4- Had the ref been fair, our players would have controlled the midfield and not give Stoke the chance to cross ( having Bellerin and chambers in the penalty area against crouch, that was surely dangrous). But the ref kept on stopping our play by giving them imaginary fouls and lettimg them break our attack with rotational (sometimes dangerous) fouls.
    5- The penalty to Sanchez ( which no one mentioned yet, as it was not replayed on TV), and the goal chamce which the ref stopped to get back to the foul. Those are other chancea to get us back to the game (one was at 1-0 and other at 2-0).
    6- am sorry, but if you know little about tactocs, you would predict such a goal score (like I did) when looking at how they were allowed to play. They kept on crossing, ans we were not allowed to touch them.
    7- Professional footballer? Like they are born with no moral, no sense,nothing! So what about that mental block they keep telling us.

79. So what the hell does Webb do – isn’t he meant to ‘explain’ his colleagues decisions to us ignorant fans, who have only been paying and watching football for 50 years. OK, he is appointed by a man with an agenda and has his own known allegiances, but at the very least Wenger should be banging down Webb’s cave door demanding answers. I cant imagine the likes of Frigginson or Maureen not piling in and then taking the fine. The club should create a stink. Let those gormless journalists have a go defending the sort of refereeing we’ve been enduring for way too long. What have we come to, when we know the result and pattern of a game, as soon as we know the referee. Rubbish.

80. Yassin

    I get it.
    We were caught in the crossfire of Oswald, the Grassy Knoll and LBJ’s henchmen in the Britannia of our mind.
    At some point you’re going to have to hold the players accountable for such performances, and by association Wenger.

    Tactics? You’re having a laugh now.

    I don’t agree with those clowns hurling insults at Wenger, I do fear its going to get worse if we continue this form. A large percentage of Arsenal supporters are far less forgiving than most in this space.

81. I’m lost for words, not sure where to start. I mean, after seeing all those blatantly biased decisions and how the team was handicapped by a cheating ref who didn’t even do a good job of masking it some still have a go at Wenger!??? The human mind truly is a complex thing.

    Those saying the club or Wenger should make noise about this, just one question ; why is Wenger called the whinger by many? He used to complain, more than any other person in football in this country, and where did that get him? Ridicule, and more ridicule. Just ask any fan from another club which team moans/complains the most, and the answer will be Arsenal. And that’s even without a complaint by the club or manager in the media these past 3 or 4 years. They won’t even say Liverpool, Swansea, or any other club whose manager got fined recently for complaining about the refs. What you’re simply asking for is more petrol from the lazy media hacks if you ask Wenger to attack the refs in his interviews. Just ask Rafa. The club can’t do anything that’ll not make the situation worse.

82. Semeotist
    Really really good post. Didn’t want to commend you on such a solid post in the same thread with my rant.

83. Maybe it doesn’t need wenger to complain Al, but perhaps Ivan, initially from behind the scenes. Bet David Dein would have something to say.
    Think Arsenal as an entity are wary of rocking the boat, not sure that is best when dealing with bias or possibly corruption

84. @Mandy,

    Agree Ivan and the board should do something.
    But I dont wish for a word. I would love this whole corrupt system to go down. I want this honest man to be looked again as it should have been for the last 8 years. But its only a wish.

    As you said on PA, I wish next home game, the fans show support, or at least respect for the manager with a banner or a chant!

85. @Al,

    If a boy got into a fight with bigger ones. And this boy was well beaten, then his father came and looked at him and asked him, why didnt he fight like he trained him. Blamed him and left the boy after being humilated without getting his dignity back. What do you call this father? I call him a coward! Some arsenal fans are cowards, they see their teams well destroyed in every match and still not move a bit. But then they will pour all their anger at the manager and players. They are afraid of blaming the ref, or then they will be called names and stuff by other fans.

    Yes we are having problems at the back.
    yes and I agreed in the beginning of thr season with others here that we should have got a CB.
    Yes we should have defended better against stoke.

    But No and damn No, I will not hit my team when they are down, when the players look at the ref and see how he manipulate the game, I will show them my support and not accept to blame them until this is fixed. I will not accept this Arsenal club, the one I loved, and I keep 90% of my day, reading watchinf or following, to have points and trophies stolen by such refs, and not like the total obvious manipulation we witnessed on Saturday. And surely not let the best, most dignified, most honest, most passionate manager I have ever seen be humilated like everyone is doing now. We have to defend our team, its ours. Of you as a supporter cant do it, then dont wait for the management to.

86. Mandy
    I would like to think words are being said behind the scenes, but unfortunately we know the fa only reacts to what the media dictates. If the media had come out castigating that choke on Alexis by Adams you can bet he would have been charged today. But motd didn’t even show it, a few papers talked about it in passing, and that’ll be the end of that. Our treatment is getting worse unfortunately. It’s tricky Mandy.

    Yassin
    We said the best was to unfurl banners highlighting the referees injustices at our home games, and that never materialised. Instead, perhaps the sites such as le grove got wind of that through their spies that seem not able to get away from here, and unfurled one of theirs with a negative message. Banners at our home games are the way forward. In support of the manager. If I’d a ticket to the Newcastle game I’d be doing it. We need to show our support, not just on these blogs, but in the full glare of the public’s eye.

87. Exactly Al,

    This site, the PA, and all other sites that support Wenger should gather up and start the Banner supporting the manager. Even those who want him out. They should have a banner with respect to this manager. No one can mention Wright, Adam, or any other player badly because they were Arsenal Legends. And the same people defending them are the ones insulting the biggest legend of them all.
    Come on Gooners, show your class!

88. Would love to see the same Yassin, but as long as the likes of Blatter and Platini are in power, corruption fill always filter down from the top.
    Agree Al, the media are an issue, but there are ways of handling the media without compromising or lowering yourself, as Wenger did on day 1. But don’t think as a club we are especially good at manipulating the media…or indeed the refs, a point made recently by I believe it was Tom. But yes, it is tricky manipulating an entity that has it in for you. Get the impression wenger would rather spend his time on other things, and sees himself quite rightly above all that shite, ..but there are others at the club who could maybe…just maybe be a bit more active. They need to remember, people are getting physically hurt. And they should by now have a lot of evidence stacked up.

89. I cannot believe no one has mentioned the first Taylor cheat. If you watch the video carefully Stoke’s captain called heads, you can see on the video the coin is tails and yet Taylor quickly turns it over and says it is heads. Stoke choose to kick off and 25 seconds later the ball is in the back of our net. After that we were chasing the game and the next 2 goals were a direct result.

90. You guys are always taking a pop at Le |Grove but really ought to take a look at the forum on the online gooner if you want to know where the banner came from.

91. How about bringing a banner to a home match stating something like” Arsenal Fan’s/ supporters Demand Fair play from the Match Referee No More Cheating fair play for all” could be worth a try and it would certainly draw the Clubs attention as to how we supporter s feel about this disgraceful treatment of our team by PGMO,

92. Porter
    You could be right about where the banner came from, but I never visit those sites so I’ve no idea what goes on there. You’d think I’m lying but I’ve never ever visited le grove all my life, what I heard about them is enough to make me not even think of going there.

    Murphy
    That sounds like a plan. I even went as far as suggesting flying a banner carrying plane before the match like utd fans have done in the past. I’m prepared to contribute financially towards that, after all if we what we read about it it doesn’t cost much; less than a grand I think…

93. @Gooner Murphy,

    Agree, but then who is gonna do it. I wish I lived in London and attended matches to do it. Do you? can you do it? anyone?

94. Spartan..This is pure classic comedy “The players are fed up with the biased referees hence the poor performances.If you go into a match knowing that the referee will be out to get you then im sure u would be demotivated as well.Even Mourinho wouldn’t cope with all the bias and corruption.”

    So now the referees are responsible for our poor results,lack of motivation,our injuries.What next the officials will be responsible for our calamitous defending ,out tactical ineptness,our paper thin squad and chelsea and city spending money BOO HOO.Our genious of a manager has no chance when hes up against that.. You couldn’t make this sh1t up.This is like a cult website brainwashed by our once great manager.

95. Could somebody print that picture of Adams choking Alexis on a t-shirt or a banner/poster ,with a catchy phrase to draw attention to the violence and the unfairness of it all ?

96. How much difference does a referees incompetence, especially his bias make?

    A F***ing lot.

    Manchester united played poorly at the Emirates and won. Why?

    After all, Arsenal played very well and where easily the better side no matter what the Sun or MOTD say.

    Arsenal had more possession and a lot more shots, both on and off target.

    Manchester united played poorly at St. Marys and won. Why?

    After all, Southampton where much the better side.

    The reason I ask this is because I contest, had United had to face the kind of biased refereeing we had to face at Stoke, they would of, without question, of lost both those games.

    But instead of losing they come out smelling of roses by ‘winning playing badly’.

    But it’s in those type of games that a Referees impartiality can make all the difference between playing badly and winning, and playing badly and losing.

    The fact is you haven’t got a Scooby, whether you are Arsenal or Manchester United, if you not only play poorly but you also have to play against a referee like Taylor as well.

    But how often do united have to play against a Refereeing performance like Taylors? Not very often, if ever.

    So yes, the referees impartiality makes all the f***ing difference and to dismiss such cheating bias on the basis ‘that we played poorly and deserved to lose anyway’, is total bullshit, if you don’t mind me saying.

97. In other words….

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuEQixrBKCc

98. For a catch phrase or slogan , this ,for obvious
    ( but maybe not practical) reasons is mine , ” Stoke’s Adams attack afflicts (or chokes or cuts off )Alexis !

    Stokes-Adams Attacks-
    Synonyms: Adams-Stokes, Morgagni, Morgagni-Adams-Stokes and Spens’ syndrome

    A classic Stokes-Adams attack is a collapse without warning, associated with loss of consciousness for a few seconds.

    http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/Stokes-Adams-Attacks.htm

99. Nick Lee,
    If you showed 1/100th of the shocked reaction from the two rows of Stoke fans who are in the photo frame of the CHOKING by Adam against Alexis, then I would have any respect for your call for an agro-balling response.

100. AFC seemingly “wary of rocking the boat”
     Mandy Dodd,
     This is about taking a business decision. There may well be logical, pragmatic, commercial reasons for AFC’s remaining publicly silent while its commercial assets (the players) are being scythed into being non-performing assets (as in how much time is lost per season to thuggery).

     But then there needs to be a proper eyes-open discussion – a what-if, or thought-experiment – on whether commercial reasons are at the root of the team’s apparent silence: such as, could it be that not jeopardizing a top-4 finish is Required by the current business model and its component deals?

     Perhaps, for one hypothetical example, the (biggest) Puma deal may be performance-tied and provide substantially less revenue if there is no CL visibility for its products. In order to help ensure top 4 finish, the decision is taken not to openly (or perhaps even behind the scenes) criticize the PGMOL. If this might be the case, then we ought to consider such scenarios in our discussions. For surely, if the likes of us can see and Walter can prove the obvious, the club also sees it. There should be no doubt on that score. Perhaps fan discussion of this possibility might create more of an atmosphere where AFC and the PGMOL are more likely to sort this out.

     As a footnote: didn’t Liverpool last season come back so strong from a non-CL finish? Is the non-CL finish such a busine$$-killer that we continue to zip it? And is it bearable to continue to zip it and – if the trend continues to protect “resurgent” Manure’s top-4 finishing – find ourselves outside the top-4 anyway?

101. “If the media had come out castigating that choke on Alexis by Adams you can bet he would have been charged today. But motd didn’t even show it, a few papers talked about it in passing, and that’ll be the end of that.”
     AL,
     Well stated. What is also very troubling is whether the likes of Ozil and Alexis and future highly-skilled signings (like the DM that seems an urgent requirement) will think twice about what joining AFC might mean to their longevity as players. If Alexis were cut down in a career-ender, or into a long-term rehab, and it went unpunished (or underpunished, and thereby abetted by the refshite and the complicit medja), then WHO in their right mind would want to risk dosh and limbs to come here?!

102. With further kudos to Walter, here’s a sample chant or slogan to go with the red cards, the T-shirt, the signage that are sorely needed:
     “ADAMS-TAYLOR OUT!” It links the thuggery-PGMOL axis to its latest malfeasance. It’s not only the club’s silence that needs a challenge; but also that fans at the Ems (and traveling) need to vocally demand change. This does not address flaws in the team’s performance, but the refshite is a component – a chronic component – that we face. Will it take the next Eduardo, Diaby, Ramsey assault – which will happen to one of our best (and perhaps, accumulated, has been doing in Jack Wilshere) – to THEN motivate anyone to open their gobs? Or are attendees too comfortable to bother? If so, well then, we get what we deserve.