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- Arsenal: most shots at home, fewest shots away. What’s going on?
- Tackles, fouls and cards from fouls: Bournemouth v Arsenal
- Bournemouth v Arsenal Reserves: Arsenal top of the league for injuries
- AFC Bournemouth v Arsenal: 19 October 5.30pm: the background
ByTony Attwood
Really sorry about the delay in bringing this post, because of technical issues. But here we are…
Arsenal are reporting on Saka’s availability: “It’s not a serious injury. He’s evolving really well. He’s done a few things in the last two days. He wasn’t fit enough to play with the national team the second game but we are hopeful. We have a training session this afternoon, he did some bits yesterday, so let’s see if he can make it on time.”
on Havertz’s fitness:
“He had a few issues and we’ve been dealing with that. He’s been absolutely brilliant, he has very good communication with the national team, with the manager. They understood the situation, we modified everything that we could do here and again if he trains well today he’s got a good chance to be fit and available.”
on Martinelli:
“Well with Gabby he landed yesterday afternoon here so we have very short time to be with him. Yesterday he went outside to do a little bit and see how he’s feeling. Again today will be another step to understand whether we want to take the risk if he’s fit because I know what the player is going to say – ‘I’m going to be fit for sure’.”
on White, Timber and Zinchenko:
“They are quite close, the three of them. Again today we’re going to have to try to push and see how it is because obviously we are getting stronger with the numbers, especially in our right side, but hopefully we have some positive news today and we have some players back for tomorrow.”
on Partey’s fitness:
Yes. Thomas is fit, yes.
The Guardian offers us by way of the team
Raya
White Saliba Gabriel Calafirori
Jorginho Havertz Rice
Saka Trossard Martinelli
although the way they space it out on the page 4-5-1 formation rather than the 4-3-3 that we are used to.
They then give us the substitutes list as being selected from Porter, Heaven, Kacurri, Lewis-Skelly, Kiwior, Merino, Nwaneri, Partey, Jesus, Sterling, Butler-Oyedeji, with Neto being unable to play against his parent club.
Sports Mole have a nice line with “Top-half teams have proven to be the Cherries’ kryptonite in recent times”. “Cherries’ kryptonite” is not a phrase I have come across before but I guess we know what they mean.
They go for a 2-0 win for Arsenal with a team sheet reading
Raya;
Partey, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori;
Merino, Jorginho, Rice;
Saka, Jesus, Trossard
so they reckon Havertz is not ready to play – and indeed nor is Martinelli. But Sports Mole’s readership have been voting 84% expecting an Arsenal victory.
Fantasy Football however goes for Arsenal suddenly opting for a 4-4-2 line up
Raya;
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori;
Trossar, Rice, Merino, Martinelli
Havertz, Jesus
For what it is worth I would expect 4-3-3 as usual, sine all the reserve players will be used to playing that and that’s why we have a 25 man squad.
Two obvious mistakes caused the goals…The team was flat from the get go.
Some obvious professional fouls in the last few minutes that haven’t been sanctioned.
The forecast about the ref+VAR proved to be spot on. Not just today, but taking Saliba out of Liverpool match.
Foul was on half-way, nearly 50 yards from goal. Ben White would have had a chance to cover. Bournemouth player was offside.
Why did VAR intervene? Why was Howard Webb on his phone and who was he contacting? I have my suspicions.
When are Arsenal going to speak out against such blatant cheating by referees?
Goal-kicks for Bournemouth which should have been Arsenal corners, hand-balls ignored, even Nwaneri penalised for being fouled. Plus all media and pundits agree with ref decisions, – all that “letter of the law” bollocks which doesn’t apply to any other team.
Even their penalty doubtful, as it seemed that their player did a Vardy trip on Raya.
Angry but not a bit surprised, as this corruption and cheating has become the norm.
GoingGoingGooner
Have to admit we shot ourselves in the foot. Even though Salibas foul was a long way from goal it’s hard to argue it wouldn’t of been a one on one with the keeper, and that is a goal scoring opportunity.
But caused by a slack pass, and it wasn’t the first or last. The penalty was the result of another under hit pass.
But as usual, we see the letter of the law applied to us. A card for a slowly taken throw which compared to what we see all the time, wasn’t.
A foul throw given for a foot off the ground when we see similar, and feet over the line, all the time.
Plus as you say, tactical fouling at the end by Bournemouth and nothing.
At one point one of the Bournemouth players committed a foul, 2 seconds later another foul, then started ‘tapping the ball away’ when we were awarded a free kick. Now he got a yellow, but it could of been for the 2 fouls or tapping the ball away, but should of been both and a red, but that kind of refereeing only applies to us and not our opponents it seems.
And just to put the bitter icing on an already sour cake Martinelli should of scored just before their opener.
I felt all match, even with 10 men, that we were going to score, should of, but didn’t. But I also felt we were so sloppy we were going to give a goal/goals away, and we did.
Never mind it happens. Stuff ‘pool next week and all will be well.
John l
As I said, I thought it probably was a red, but as you suggest maybe not. It’s debatable to the point it wouldn’t of happened to our opponents I know that.
“Why was Howard Webb on his phone and who was he contacting? I have my suspicions”. I know, very suspicious.
“When are Arsenal going to speak out against such blatant cheating by referees?”
I know, but alas it would only make it worse.
“Goal-kicks for Bournemouth which should have been Arsenal corners, hand-balls ignored, even Nwaneri penalised for being fouled”.
Yep. The Nwaneri thing was laughable.
“Plus all media and pundits agree with ref decisions,”
That’s why I have the volume down. As clear as night follows day the punters will agree with everything that goes against us.
“all that “letter of the law” bollocks which doesn’t apply to any other team”.
Yep,.
“Even their penalty doubtful, as it seemed that their player did a Vardy trip on Raya”.
Again I have to agree it was soft.
And talking of the cheat Gillett. When Jesus went down the replays clearly showed contact by the Bournemouth player. Okay, I concede it would of been soft, but as they say ‘I’ve seen them given’. Not for us of course. But my point is, have a look at what he saw as a foul in that Arsenal disallowed goal against Palace I linked in the other thread. It seems not minimal but invisible contact is enough for Gillett when it’s us.
All in all a very frustrating night.
The thing is now, we get so blatantly, diabolically cheated so often, that when we just get cheated I sort of accept as just the way it is.
That’s how bad things have got.
Awful performance all round. Attack, Defense, goalkeeping, and refereeing. He may have gotten the 2 big decisions right but was otherwise puzzlingly one way re fouls, yellows, etc. Early on Havertz was literally ridden off the ball, pushed to ground with the Bournemouth player on top and Havertz was called for a foul. Late on, the Bournemouth player dives across Jesus, his foot hits Jesus’s and Jesus gets the whistle. Just 2 examples but it seemed every call was like that.
A friend is here for American College Football and watched the Arsenal match. He doesn’t follow any soccer. He thinks “Arsenal is a dirty team”. Why? Because of the all the “penalties (fouls) against them”. I tried to explain bias, the PGMOL, VAR and the football media in England. He was surprised by the secrecy and shocked by the rest. Last night we watched an MLB Playoff Game and each time a play was reviewed we saw a live shot of the Replay Control Room and monitors as they replayed the incident from different angles and at different speeds. It might be just for the playoffs but it’s refreshing.
Today is just one loss, we didn’t think the team would go unbeaten. Forward.
9Nitram,
I agree. The “letter of the law” stance would be acceptable if it was applied consistently, but, as you say, it only seems to apply to Arsenal.
It has been this way for as long as I can remember: – eg the 2 points deduction in 1991, (which didn’t prevent us winning the league, as it was intended to do).