- How referees are manipulating the number of yellow cards this season
- What more can be said about ManC before the game v Arsenal?
- Manchester City v Arsenal: the games no one will tell you about
Of course there is also another Arsenal vs Manchester City game on today and that kicks off just about the time I am writing this – and the Guardian has a very poignant opening note saying “one of the WSL’s all-time greats joined Manchester City on a free transfer this summer – a move that left Arsenal fans utterly heartbroken. Miedema had spent seven years with the Gunners, winning one WSL title and three League Cups.”
But as I can’t get to the women’s game I will stay focussed on the match in Manchester. There is talk that Kevin De Bruyne could play or might be a substitute despite going off after 45 minutes Inter in the midweek game. Nathan Ake and Oscar Bobb are however both out of contention.
Declan Rice is back however but Martin Odegaard is now said to be out for a long time and Mikel Merino, Kieran Tierney, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Oleksandr Zinchenko are all out as well.
Manchester City have knocked up four league wins and a Champions League draw this season. This adds to a run of victories in the league that started on 3 April with a 4-1 win over Aston Villa, and ran for 10 consecutive league victories plus the four this season. The only chink in that run is that they only beat Brentford by one goal – but that really is clasping at straws. If Arsenal are going to win it is going to be through a tactical masterpiece, or a referee for some reason we cannot speculate about, getting thoroughly annoyed with ManC.
But we can take some hope from the fact that we got four points off them last season, and in those games ManC didn’t actually score – the first time that has happened in 17 games.
However ManC have lost more times to Arsenal than they have to any other club and Arsenal have beaten ManC more than any other club except Everton. An Arsenal win will take the defeats of ManC to 100, exactly the same as defeats of Everton – although given the way Everton are performing I’d hope for a couple more victories in that regard before this campaign is done. The only problem is that no one has beaten ManC at their ground for 47 games. But Arsenal have won six consecutive Premier League away games since drawing 0-0 at Manchester City on 31 March, so maybe, just maybe…
But if most of that sounds like a ManC win, if Arsenal win or draw they will be the first club ever in the Premier League to go through a dozen consecutive league games without going behind in an away game. That one came from the BBC – I wonder how they find these things. They also tell us that Arsenal “have kept a clean sheet in nine of their past 10 away league fixtures,” although it seems we rarely win against reigning champions. But that’s not really surprising.
Where we have been getting the goals it is from set pieces, and this seems to be another area in which the meticulous preparation of the team of men working alongside Arteta can come up with the goods, as we saw with the goalkeeping coach and the mid-week penalty save.
And I can add one of those snippets, again from the Guardian, “Bukayo Saka could become only the second player after Thierry Henry in 2004-05 to provide an assist in each of a team’s first five Premier League matches to a season.” (They obviously have a bigger computer than me to track such things).
As I write this it seems Arsenal women are 1-0 against ManC so I must hurry along and get to the TV. But first something on the team.
Raya;
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber;
Havertz, Partey, Rice;
Saka, Trossard, Martinelli
Raya;
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber;
Partey, Jorginho, Rice;
Saka, Havertz, Trossard.
Sporting News have the same line up as the Standard.
But Pain in the Arsenal come up with
Raya;
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber;
Jorginho, Partey, Rice;
Saka, Havertz, Trossard.
So it will be something like that. Meanwhile, as I write this it is still 1-0 to the Arsenal in the women’s game. So off to the TV.
Finished 2 – 2
Surprise surprise we had a perfectly good goal ruled out for off side.
But I suppose our equaliser could of been ruled out as it looked like a foul in the build.
Probably a fair result over all, but Beth Mead did miss two ‘sitters’ in the first half.
It was Stina Blackstenius with the two bad misses in the first half. Through ono on one with the keeper both times. Put the first one wide and the second too close to the keeper. Russo missed a third in the second half. I couldn’t see why our ‘goal’ was red out for offside, too many people standing up.
Overall a draw probably about right. Definitely looked like a foul on Kelly in the build up to our second.
Andrew
Sorry, my mistake. Of course it was Blackstenius.
In real time it looked level. So benefit of the doubt and all that. But on freeze frame the Man City players foot was definitely playing the Arsenal player on side.
Despite the THREE misses, probably a fair result.
It looks like we’ve got a match on!
Referees! Screwing us over! Commentators all on City’s side!
MIchael Oliver…unbelievable! Trossard might weigh 10 stone…maybe less. Are you kidding excesive force?
I think they are saying it’s for kicking the ball away??
Does anyone remember Wenger getting sent off for kicking a water bottle? Pep just about put his foot through his chair…nothing to see here!
No, cant be for that so…..what can you say. 2 of the softest yellows you’ll ever see.
So, it was for kicking the ball away.
Still a joke.
Oliver was still blowing the whistle. Trossard was in the process of swinging his leg. You pull out of that you can pull a muscle. From the moment Oliver started blowing the whistle to Trossard kicking the ball was under 1 second
@GoingGoingGooner
Talksport radio were talking about the Havertz – Rodri incident when it happened and Perry Groves was being ribbed by the other two commentators. Perry was upbeat as he was being teased that Arsenal ‘got away with one’, and he commented that Oliver was doing a good job. I switched over to BBC Radio 5 a few minutes later and it seems they were blaming Rodri for the incident, so I can’t agree with you that the Radio 5 commentators are on Manchester City’s side.
It sounds like the referee is having a bad game, but he did manage to move Walker out of position for the move that led to AFC’s first goal.
PGMO 2 Arsenal 2
Tomorrow I might feel good about the single point but today I feel that we were robbed by Oliver! In no other occupation is a person so unaccountable for his actions!
I am certain the media will talk about naive Trossard tomorrow but those were invented yellow cards.
Going Going Gunner. My view exactly.
Magnificent performance. So proud.
We are only 5 games in and The PiGMOb have already stolen 4 points from us.
But lets be honest, we all knew this was going to happen. As predictable as Night follows Day.
By the way. Roy Keane is a c***
That’s not me saying that, that’s my West ham supporting mate.
Twice we’ve been ahead. Twice those prats have seen fit to give our opponents a chance by giving them 10 men to play against. A Joke.
Doku kicked the ball away early in the match to stop Arsenal taking a quick free kick, no card. And then Oliver suddenly gave a second yellow card for Trossard who was moving his leg to the ball after making a foul. Oliver at his best/worst….. I bet he wanted to make sure he would get his fight tickets to the UEA this winter….
We are 5 games into the season, and we already have had Gillet twice and Oliver twice…
So… wtf…… maybe Arsenal should hand them out frequent flyer miles…
@Nitram
I agree …Roy Keane is a nasty piece of work. It’s a good thing I played football before he invented it!
It was 12 against 10 and Stones is playing the victim. Accusing Arsenal of ‘dark arts’. FFS
Keane is disappointed with Arsenal who apparently only got a point because Man city were so poor.
I don’t normally listen to this post match drivel. I know why.
I find it incredible to believe that any game I have watched in the last few seasons in Europe has anywhere near 90% accuracy from the officials. I may be nit picking but most of the leagues I watch have at least 5 to 10 errors per half. In EURO 24 I watched perhaps a few minutes of some matches – every time I watched for a short while there was a glaring error. One example was Cristiano Ronaldo in Georgia v Portugal where he pointed out the ref that he had his shirt pulled – clearly visible on the replay – VAR completely ignored this. The ref then booked CR – he should have given Portugal a penalty! Funny how VAR did not intervene!
I do not watch the EPL, and haven’t done for the last few years, as the PIGMOB are probably the worst refereeing body I have ever seen. It is just so biased as to make the games unwatchable. Seems that Oliver’s performance this afternoon makes me feel I have made the right decision. I watched a local game this morning and the refereeing was 500% better than anything I watch in televised games.
La Liga is just as bad – although to give then credit Spanish fans say that there is no corruption just totally incompetent officials.
I must say that only 1 match in about 30 appears to be refereed as near to correct. Correct officiating should be the standard all referees should aspire to – with VAR it should be much easier.
The governing bodies are always pushing the message “Refereeing is a difficult job”. I realise that but ALL of the governing bodies are not willing to discuss the problems and do even less to rectify obvious shortcomings.
With multiple cameras at games fans can actually work out what is going on when errors are made. I am fed up with games being decided by how many errors the officials make.
I am at the point that for my own health I will not watch games with certain officials in charge as they appear to be refereeing a completely different game to the one unfolding in front of them.
The media don’t help at all as they are just as biased. Most of the time I watch games with no sound due to commentators saying how wonderful the officials are when the viewer can see they haven’t got a clue. I am watching Villareal – Barcelona – have only watched about 10 minutes – about 5 “errors” already. The top refs in football have become a joke. Pundits saying how wonderful everything is – I am so fed up with officiating that is ruining games