By Walter Broeckx
Arsenal made a lot of changes for this match in the FA cup. Five in total.
Cech stayed in goal as Ospina has a slight groin problem so we saw Macey on the bench. At the back Gabriel came in for Mertesacker and Gibbs came in for Monreal. The latter found himself on the bench, Per was in the stands.
In midfield Chambers played together with Oxlade-Chamberlain and Campbell and Iwobi. Up front we had Giroud and Walcott.
On the bench we had Arteta back for the first in a long time. Debuchy also there. Also a few youngsters with Reine-Adelaide and Willock. Ramsey on the bench to come in when needed.
Arsenal team: Cech, Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Gibbs, Chambers, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Campbell, Walcott, Iwobi, Giroud
On the beach: Macey, Debuchy, Arteta, Ramsey, Monreal, Reine-Adelaide, Willock
Not much goal mouth incidents in the opening minutes. Both teams looking to find the right balance with all those changes. Iwobi being very busy and not shying away from the ball. Arsenal then with a good attack. The Ox to Giroud who gave it to Gibbs who had a hard shot on goal but Pickford managed to punch it in to a corner. The angle was favourable for the keeper, good shot but good reflex from the keeper. But nothing more noteworthy in the first 15 minutes so still 0-0 after 15 minutes.
Then Koscielny with a stupid action trying to dribble Lens on his own penalty area (not a smart pass from Gibbs who won the ball back) and Lens one on one with Cech and he made no mistake. 0-1 for Sunderland after 16 minutes.
Iwobi then going past 3 mand but Pickford blocked his effort at the expense of a corner. Gabriel going down when a player from Sunderland fell on his ankle and he looked in some discomfort. But he came back on the field after some treatment. Iwobi with a good ball to Walcott on the left to Walcott who went past his man, looked well and placed the ball towards the onrushing Campbell who calmly slotted the ball past the Sunderland keeper. GOAL! 1-1 after 26 minutes.
Pickford again needing to make a safe on a dangerous shot from Walcott. Atkinson stopping the rest of a promising Arsenal attack by inventing a foul from Campbell. The Ox then with a shot from distance but well wide. 1-1 after 30 minutes.
Atkinson giving Sunderland a corner.. same old same old… Arsenal with most of the ball but not much goal scoring chances. A few corners but nothing really dangerous. Lens being the most dangerous player for Sunderland with a few runs and a blocked shot. Atkinson again stopping an Arsenal attack by giving a foul against Iwobi. Arsenal pressing in the extra time of the first half but shots from Campbell and The Ox were blocked by lots of defending bodies. So it stayed 1-1 after the first 45 minutes.
Koscielny and The Ox getting in each other’s way after a promising cross from Campbell and Atkinson stopping Arsenal again after inventing a foul. Campbell working very hard now for Arsenal, winning lots of balls back. Iwobi with a lovely ball to Campbell but nobody at the end of his cross so a defender can clear in front of goal. Iwobi then with a low shot but straight at the keeper. The Ox then with a curler that hits the post and Theo cannot put the rebound in goal. At the other end a good cross to Fletcher whose effort ends up against the crossbar and the rebound is put over the bar by Watermore. Iwobi at the other end with a low shot but no prloblem for the keeper. Still 1-1 after an hour.
Seconds after the hour mark Campbell with a 1-2 with Walcott but Pickford with an amazing stop to prevent Arsenal taking the lead. Atkinson helping M’Vila when he ran in a dead corner of the field and just fell to the floor. A handball from Sunderland ignored, not from Iwobi by Atkinson. Fletcher headed the free kick over the crossbar. After 65 minutes Iwobi goes off and Ramsey comes on. Iwobi had a good match. Chambers also came off and Arteta came on.
Gibbs with a low cross but Giroud just inches late to convert and Pickford could gather the ball. Gibbs again with a low cross to Walcott this time but his first time shot was too close to Pickford. Then Arsenal with a super attack. The Ox to Bellerin on the right, a pass to the middle to Campbell who immediately gave it back to Bellerin and his low cross found Ramsey in the middle unmarked. GOAL! 2-1 To The Arsenal after 72 minutes.
Bellerin then with a run on his flank and waiting till the perfect moment to deliver his cross. One could say an Özilesque pass with the right weight and precesion and Giroud just had to roll it in the net. GOAL! 3-1 to the Arsenal after 76 minutes.
Atkinson then being Atkinson when Giroud was clearly fouled when he was about to pull the trigger in the penalty area but he waved it away as predicted by Untold Arsenal. Cech then had to come of his line quickly to deny Sunderland on the counter attack. The not given penalty was after a great pass from Walcott that put Giroud one on one with the keeper. After 80 minutes Joel Campbell came off under a great cheer and Jeff Reine-Adelaide came on. Campbell who had a great match.
Atkinson then didn’t give a backpass to Pickford… amazing stuff from the referee once again… It was a deliberate pass, with the foot… a real backpass… unbelievable… Oh it looks as if he found his rules book again for a foul throw from Sunderland.
Gibbs with a good cross (again!) Giroud with the header but a great save from Pickford (also again). A combination Ramsey-Giroud just didn’t work out. Arsenal pinning Sunderland back looking for another goal. Fat Sam waving his players back to prevent a higher score. The Ox setting up The Jeff but his control just let him down and Pickford could save.
Gabriel with a foul just outside the penalty area in the last seconds of the extra time gave Sunderland a free kick. But the ball ended in the arms of Cech.
Arsenal won and march on after 13 consecutive wins in the FA cup. The whole team played well after needing some time to get going. Some young players got a chance and did well. I think Arséne will have been a happy man with what he saw today.
Good 🙂 performances by all the team, a good 🙂 work rate, and a great :):) win.
Good 🙂 to see Arteta back and Iwobi and Jeff playing, hope to see them much more from now on.
Funny trivia:
the score-line and our goal-scorers were exactly the same as they were in the league clash between the sides, with Rambo and Giroud switching places on the score-sheet. And Giroud not scoring an own goal, of course. 🙂
Atkinson… I don’t know what to say about that person. The fact he has qualified for EURO 2016 says it all.
Good job Walter. Arteta’s entrance introduced the missing ‘fluency’ into the midfield. One can see why Wenger has kept faith with him.
And the foul on Giroud for which the penalty was not given… typical Atkinson.
Good report Walter!
What a pathetically predictably incompetently biased creature Atkinson is – totally unfit for purpose and worthy of a petition!
But, well done the team and manager – a very satisfactory win against the Black Cats and Man in Black!
Great report, Walter
I saw the game and the appalling officiating the same way. Wenger put out a strong side and was rewarded. Really glad he respects the FA Cup. The team were certainly up for it. Everyone contributed. Strong win.
Also, wonderful to stick it to FAT SAM. No disrespect to the Sunderland players – they put in a shift.
Chamberlain had a bad first half, but improved in second half and played much better. It was good of Wenger to give him a full second half.
Campbell was excellent and Iwobi also played good. Campbell might soon be the New Coquelin this season.
And any hope that I had in referees of improving and playing fair is gone, vanished, become non-existent. I will say this here now, MARTIN ATKINSON WAS DOGSH*T. Apologies for my language.
My final statement is to everyone reading this, “Any match official that works in the top most division of English Football (The English Premier League) can not be trusted anymore, they can not be hoped to improve, they can not be hoped to play fair, they can not be unbiased or unprejudiced.”
I have had enough, X(
I should probably eat some ice-cream to celebrate the win and cool my head down. 🙂
That was a fun match to watch. Sunderland never gave up right until the end and for that they must be given credit. The Boss got his substitutions right. Ramsey injected some urgency into the attack, Arteta some fluency in the back and Jeff some hope for the future! 🙂 As for the PGMO team, they weren’t dismal but Atkinson did miss a couple of obvious fouls, especially the one on Giroud directly in front of the goal. Still, it beats a night at the opera!
For metronomic passes, Arteta.
For the immediate future, Iwobi, Adelaide.
For screw ups, Atkinson, pigmol
Usama
Sad to say but your statement is 100% correct.
Birmingham today. Toral came on at 68 minutes. Bournemouth won.
Hayden played the 90 for Hull. No sign of Akpom on field or bench. Hayden had 4 shots on goal, in the win. Good on him, too many slivers this season.
Maitland-Niles started and played 58 minutes for Ipswich in their tie with Portsmouth.
Martinez was on the bench for Wolves, so the injury is gone. West Ham still ended up winning. Jenkinson played the 90, and had one shot on goal.
Rangers play in Scottish Cup tomorrow.
Sanogo at Ajax?
Szczesny at Roma? Roma plays AC Milan later today?
Damn, sounds like I missed out on this one. Didn’t watch due to other pressing matters, but sounds like the whole team was on fire today. Campbell is been getting better and better with each outing. And Atkinson was predictable, again.
Usama relax. I am the one who makes the statement that the FA & PGMO are corrupt cheats. They cannot be trusted for sporting fairness.
There is nothing worse in sport than corrupt officiating allowed to manifest itself with regularity. There are many who excuse them as human errors but I cannot see why paid employees should be allowed so much leeway.
Wengers Arsenal are above all the cheats & will despite the bias & handicap succeed.
Haha, Menace 🙂
Had a nice meal which helped 🙂 The main thing is that we played great football even with squad rotation. I let my frustration out in one go, so I think I spared others their time 😀
Manchester United had to resort to unhumanitarian aid from the lot at Pigmol before they can register a goal. Perfect simulation from Depay after foot dragging for the slightest of contact from the Sheffield player.
Aside, not sure if Louis Van Gaal still has ‘Penetrating passes’ in his football dictionary or has ever written it in his now infamous notepad.
Gord, Wellington started for Bolton as well.
As games go, today’s was fairly easy..
But that didn’t stop Atminson missing obvious fouls whilst awarding non-existent ones…
The penalty looked nailed on to me and the back pass was so clear that I wondered if the back pass rule has been changed and nobody has been told. Staggering incompetence by the referee…
I was impressed by Iwobi and ‘Jeff’. Jeff looked very comfortable in possession but I guess being 3-1 up makes that a bit easier. So Iwobi gets my vote. Hopefully ‘Jeff’ can be equally good (or better even) when it’s his first start.
Thanks Andy.
Wellington had 3 shots, and assisted on 3 shots in Bolton’s tie game.
Well played the boys, got the result.
Sounds like Atkinson made himself and his profession in this country look foolish, and I believe he is one of the refs going to Euro 2016. A man who is biased and afraid to make key decisions u less they are against Arsenal…..he will sips rely do even more damage to the English game this summer.
Didn’t see it, were Utd given their traditional help?
Actually went today. Don’t get too many chances, so when we do it is always a special day for myself and Mrs Jambug.
Great report Walter, very much as we saw it.
Very enjoyable game, thanks in part to a spirited, clean, and largely attacking showing from Sunderland.
I was pleasantly surprised at there game plan and they deserve credit for that.
As for our boys, apart from the one obvious mistake from Kos I thought everyone played well. But special mentions, at least from where I sat, must go to Campbell, Bellerin and Giroud.
Campbell was everywhere. Surely he has shown enough now to of ensured his long term future at the Club. I hope so. His enthusiasm is infectious and it makes him an absolute joy to watch.
Bellerin. 20 years old? Are you sure? Is this guy heading for the accolade of best ever Arsenal Right back? Surely so if he carries on like this.
As for Giroud, how he wins some of those 50/50’s, or more like 40/60’s I’ll never know, especially as he typically didn’t get a thing from the mind numbingly appalling Attkinson.
Well done lads. Great day.
The whole ground bood loudly when Atkinson denied the penalty. This is even mentioned in the match report on arsenal.com.
Didn’t watch…
happy we won and well done Walter, Untold
Following up on Pat’s statement. From the Arsenal.com game report:
> This was Wenger’s 98th FA Cup game as Arsenal manager. His first and second were also against Sunderland back in 1997, Dennis Bergkamp and Stephen Hughes taking the Gunners through after a replay.
…
> Giroud could have had a penalty moments later but was denied by referee Martin Atkinson. Danny Graham forced a save from Cech while the home fans were still jeering that decision, but in the end it mattered little.
Mandy
> … but United looked destined for an unwanted replay until Rooney struck in the 93rd minute after a foul on substitute Memphis Depay.
> It was only the second shot on target that United had mustered, against a team 47 places below them in the English league system, …
It sounds like the referee got an assist.
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/sports/article/2000187595/rooney-saves-man-utd-in-fa-cup-arsenal-through
I loudly booed Atkinson when his name was announced prior to kick off – and got some strange looks.
Needless to say, EVERYONE in the North Bank, at least, was booing after the non-awarded penalty. As clear as it gets. It was really prolonged and the crowd also broke into “You don’t know what you’re doing…”.
I’ve also noticed that in the referee bio’s in the match programme they detail our record under that ref over recent seasons. It is quite noticeable – I guess to Untold readers at least – who we do well under. And less well under. Things are slowly shifting.
We know Keith Hackett is concerned about the imbalance with every referee from the North. We also know the Fa have failed to address the situation regarding the way southern refs interpret the rules different to those who head the merit tables from the North.
We know this. The FA knows this. PGMO know this.
I am sure nobody deliberately cheats but what concerns me is we can predict what will happen accurately.
Great win. Lots of changes and players rested. Took a time for the team to gel, as expected, but gel they did. I have no idea why the AAA are moaning or why they refuse to celebrate wins. Could they perhaps be in disguise?
ProudKev
This business about a map has me sidetracked. I have the list of all the referees and fourth officials that the EPL had up to the 20th game. There are a lot of Championship referees on that list this year. I am trying to find GPS coordinates for all these FAs (or at least GPS close to those FAs). Most of these FAs have LOUSY websites, and Google keeps trying to _help_ me. Which is driving me bananas, as Google is always wrong in what I want.
In any event, your question is on my TODO list.
I do believe some deliberately cheat.
Proud Kev…..I have no doubt some of them are disguise, I sometimes visit their sites….I know I shouldn’t….but their level of bigging up of Spurs this season, and Chelsea last is beyond suspicious.
But sadly, and incredibly, not all of these people are in disguise…just extreme self harmers wallowing in their own mentally induced pit of fetid feculence
In fact, some of them seem to love Spurs more than Osvaldo Ardiles, Alan Sugar, Chas and Dave combined
Unfortunately, MOTD seem to have spared the world Atkinsons inability a to spot a penalty…..no surprise there, though the pundits seemed very impressed with our goals
Enjoyed today, and now see why Untold highlight Atkinson’s incompetence.
But to get back to the good things.
I’ve been down on the Ox for a few weeks, but I thought he tried really hard today. Not everything came off but he had the best game he’s had for a while. Also great for Alex Iwobi to get some time on the pitch and he looks a great prospect.
Ollie was again a tower of strength and deserved his goal, but how can Twatkinson give so many fouls against him in 50:50 challenges. Theo is almost trying too hard but some one is going to pay and he’s going to get lots of goals.
Gabriel looks more and more assured and his and Cech’s purchase look inspired.
But my best is reserved for yoiung Joel Campbell who has really taken his chance and is building a great combo with Bellerin. Future looks good
COYG
Yep, motd typically didn’t show our penalty shout. I was expecting that but thought maybe.. And one can’t argue the highlights were too short to accommodate that, they did show micah Richards’ claim earlier. Some things never change.
Andrew has a thread up on how few referees on the select list are getting as many games as they should, that some are getting more, and some are getting less. And he has noticed that others (National List for Championship and down, sort of).
Half an hour ago or so, I finished adding to the Select Group list, the National List referees that the EPL has used up to game 20. There are 32 National List referees that have been used, mostly as fourth official. When they weren’t, Andrew noticed them I think. I am not counting the 2nd/3rd officials, they run lines. The fourth official may have to become the referee, if the referee gets hurt.
Fine, I had a bunch of National List referee data, might as well look at all of it, right? There are 62 names on the National List, so I had about half. A lot of these other referees, are from counties I already have GPS coordinates for (sort of). So, I shouldn’t have to look up too many more.
But, if nothing else, know that the National List has a referee from the Isle of Wight, and he has been used by the EPL this season. And that ain’t north!
How 😈 Mike Riley can stand to come out of his coffin and see the light of day, when employing someone who is south of the UK, I don’t know.
I’ll see if some numbers fall out too. 🙂
Excellent, Walter.
I’m starting to get numbers out, but it is time to call it a day. I am only having 1 decimal place with this data. Which means these numbers are sort of good to about 3 miles. The data is latitude and longitude.
The locations used for individual referees, is approximately the location of the FA they work for. In some circumstances, that data is only good to one or 200m, I don’t know that any of the data is as bad as say 800m.
The average location for PGMO Select group is (53.2 +/- 1.0, -1.9 +/- 0.6).
The average location of all National Group referees is (52.9 +/- 1.3, -1.4 +/- 1.0).
The average location of the 32 National Group referees who have done some EPL work this year is (52.8 +/- 1.2, -1.6 +/- 0.9).
The standard sorts of tests, will suggest that all 3 numbers are consistent with each other. I will suggest the standard tests shouldn’t be used, as the data is warped.
I looked briefly to find the population centroid of England and Wales. I couldn’t find anything remotely like it. It is like nobody is interested in the centroid of anything other than the land.
I seen lots of interesting maps of various things, which pixel colours proportional to some property. Which is what you want to calculate those centroids. Which nobody ever seems to do.
People have talked about somethings in football having a north versus south issue. I had seen before, there are vanishingly few non-caucasians involved with refereeing int he EPL. One of the maps was a measure of how non-caucasian a locale was. Overall, the only real concentration of non-caucasian appeared to be London. There looked to be somewhat of a concentration in/around where Aston Villa calls home. There did not seem to be one around the Mersey. Is this real, or a function of the colour scheme and/or gradient used?
I guess we can pass this around in the future. 🙂
WOO HOO , HOO ! A fine overall performance from us , other that Kos mistake. The ref , Twatkinson , ( Nice one @ Barry L January 10, 2016 at 12:28 am )did exactly what was predicted here .
Up the Gunners !
The postman always rings twice –
One Monday morning the postman was walking through the neighborhood on his usual route delivering the mail. As he approached one of the homes, he noticed that both cars were still in the driveway.
His wonder was cut short by Craig, the homeowner, coming out with a load of empty beer, wine and spirit bottles for the recycling bin.
‘Wow Craig, looks like you guys had one hell of a party last night,’ the Postman commented.
post van
Craig, in obvious pain, replied, ‘Actually we had it Saturday night. This is the first time I have felt like moving since 4 am Sunday morning. We had about 15 couples from around the neighborhood over for some weekend fun and it got a bit wild. We all got so drunk around midnight that we started playing WHO AM I?’
The Postman thought for a moment and said, ‘How do you play WHO AM I?’
‘Well, all the guys go in the bedroom and come out one at a time covered with a sheet with only the ‘family jewels’ showing through a hole in the sheet. Then the women try to guess who it is..’
The postman laughed and said, ‘Sounds like fun, I’m sorry I missed it.’
‘Probably a good thing you did,’ Craig responded, ‘Your name came up seven times.’
OK Gord I’ve got it.
The average referee lives on an unnamed road in Buxton.
Excellent report Walter.
It has been already mentioned several times by our contributors, however it can’t be said enough how diabolical this Atkinson is!!!!!!! The whimp of a man needs his head ripped of his shoulders – disgraceful LITTLE man!!!
Apart from that unusual (for him) Kos error, the team showed why we are top of the league and going full throttle for the FA Cup despite what it gets thrown at it by the most corrupt organization (alongside FUFA and UEFA) – PIGMOB!!!
COYG!!
The level of officiating we have witnessed in our last two matches, at home for that matter, leads me to reach the inescapable conclusion that the pigmob do not want us to win anything this season.
Gord – Thanks.
Looking forward to any output you can come up with.
Who here thinks the great sages who are the harshest critics of Wenger and any players in a rough patch would have taken the Ox off at half time?
I have little doubt they would have, judging by twitter (in fact I reckon some would’ve up for taking him off before half time), and, though they’re no doubt unaware of it, that has to be the ultimate indicator of how clueless they are.
Same people would have taken off Chambers at half time against Liverpool. In both cases, it would have done huge damage to the players and made it much less likely they’d find form in the short term while lessening the probability of them reaching their potential with the club.
It’s management in a nutshell : balancing short, medium and long term objectives while dealing with immediate concerns and the probabilities within a game. The Ox, after a much better second half with some high quality moments, should now be better placed to play well in the coming weeks; had he gone off at half time he’d be in an awful place today.
Agree completely Rich.
As I have written in one of my articles a few months ago: players and manager are judged on their last ball and then declared god or useless for ever and ever and ever…
Lucky we have a manager who can see beyond this.
Can think of few better illustrations of the insanity of some critics, Walter.
For instance, they supposedly want young players to come through, or they want the Ox or whoever to come good, but they’re, in practice, always against the idea of sticking with a player who is having a rough patch, and they always want two or three expensive established players in every position.
Even the emergence of Bellerin, Coquelin and Campbell (and numerous others before them, like Ramsey) seems to have no effect. Worse still is when they do understand the past- ‘we showed some patience with x player, now the rewards are huge’- but are doomed to forever repeat the same mistake of not showing any patience with players now. Forever.
By the way, either my admiration of Koscielny is leading me astray or I reckon that’s the first time you’ve unfairly criticised a players action .
It was the pass! The pass! In the alternate universe where I’ve the footballing ability of Kos, I don’t know what I could’ve done with that pass yesterday. Think he wasn’t balanced to receive a ball and couldn’t be expected to anticipate Gibbs passing it to him with player instantly upon him. Oh well, healthy to disagree every now and then.
Buxton?
I guess we should tell the estate agents, and they can find a nice house for 😈 Mike Riley to move to.
Rich I agree completely about the pass to Kos, was nothing he could do just got caught under his feet as no way should be have received that pass in that situation…
And Walter after yesterday’s ref performance I am looking forward to the full review, although it is clearly all in our minds…
Mandy Dodd
“..just extreme self harmers wallowing in their own mentally induced pit of fetid feculence”
It seems we have our very own Bard !
Unless of course you have indeed plagiarised that line. I’m afraid I wouldn’t know as my entire knowledge of the great man is gleaned from ‘Blackadder’, as indeed is my entire historical knowledge !
Where referees are located.
At the equator, the distance between 0 degrees latitude and 1 degrees latitude is 60 miles. Likewise, the distance between 0 degrees and 1 degrees longitude is 60 miles.
But, as we move away from the equator, the distance between 0 and 1 degrees longitude is less than 60 miles, and how much less is a function of how far from the equator you are. At the poles, the distance is 0.
At latitudes (distance from equator) for about mid-England, the conversion factor is about 0.6. Hence a difference of 1 degree of latitude is about 60 miles, whereas a difference of about 1 degree of longitude is only about 37 miles.
Okay, if I lay a (almost) square map on England, with squares that are about 60×60 miles, I can make a histogram (2D) of how many referees.
The data for the National Group, which are the referees used in the Championship (and 1st League?) largely falls onto 2 (wide) lines: a line running NW to SE vaguely from Manchester to London, and a line running North to South that is between Manchester and London. This N-S line nominally is through Newcastle, Sunderland and so on.
Where exactly these 2 lines are, I haven’t determined yet.
By and large, the PGMO referees fall onto a map of similar properties, except this line running NW to SE ends somewhere around Northampton or Milton Keynes.
In 2015/2016, 😈 Mike Riley has used about half of the National Group referees at EPL games, usually for 4th official. A plot of those referees shows the 2 lines, but the number of referees SE of about Northampton is less than it possibly should be.
Rich I think I did mention the pass was not the best option from Gibbs to do. But I also think Kos could have just kicked it away immediately after the pass. But in fairness I think we just wanted to give Sunderland a good feeling for a while before destroying them 😉
Ah! Walter kos gave them a condom to make them feel safe before being screwed!