Arteta is quoted in the Guardian as saying
“I have never seen a decision like this in my career. I asked the boys if they have and nobody has seen it before,” said Arteta. “When you look at the incident, the distance, the player, João touching the ball, then Saliba touching the ball, you can see contact there. I checked [with the officials]. After three seconds they said they had already checked. It seems quick.”
“Hopefully on Tuesday, we will be in a better position.” That latter point refers to the League Cup semi-final on Tuesday against Newcastle. Here’s the table just including those with aspirations and pretentions.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 18 | 14 | 3 | 1 | 45 | 17 | 28 | 45 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 20 | 11 | 7 | 2 | 39 | 18 | 21 | 40 |
| 3 | Nottingham Forest | 19 | 11 | 4 | 4 | 26 | 19 | 7 | 37 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 20 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 39 | 24 | 15 | 36 |
| 5 | Newcastle United | 20 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 34 | 22 | 12 | 35 |
| 6 | Manchester City | 20 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 36 | 27 | 9 | 34 |
| 12 | Tottenham Hotspur | 20 | 7 | 3 | 10 | 42 | 30 | 12 | 24 |
| 14 | Manchester United | 19 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 21 | 26 | -5 | 22 |
But this sort of odd decision is what you can get if a club keeps seeing the game referee in charge of its games. In his mind can be thoughts that, “I saw you do that last time, and you got away with it, this time you won’t” But indeed with the newspapers ignoring any issues with PGMO and with supporters of other clubs claiming that there is nothing wrong with refereeing, nothing will happen. And it is not PGMO’s fault – they have been getting away with running refereeing unquestioned for 24 years now, and their view must be, “we’ve got away with it for this long, no one is going to question us now.” And they are right.
And Arsenal’s away for is suffering somewhat having played two more away games than home games but with two fewer points and a wosrse goal difference.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Arsenal home | 9 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 18 | 6 | 12 | 21 |
| 4 | Arsenal away | 11 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 21 | 12 | 9 | 19 |
The referee for Tuesday’s game is Craig Pawson and the interesting point there is that compared to yesterday’s game this time it will be Newcastle who will be seeing the same referee for the FOURTH time. And really all one can say is that this is getting quite ludicrous.
Interestingly in the other semi final involving Tottenham and Liverpool the referee is Stuart Attwell, who has refereed neither team at all so far this season. Odd that.
The issue will of course be explained away by anyone moved to address it by the fact that there are not that many referees around. But this is the choice of the PGMO. They are a monopoly supplier so could employ more referees, and pay them more per match, ensuring that they only see each club twice in a season – but they don’t. And being utterly secretive they don’t explain the situation.
The only positive thus far is that Kai Havertz might be recovered by then, and Jurian Timber will have served his yellow card ban.
So can we take any positives out of that game? One is that Arsenal are now unbeaten in 13 consecutive games in all competitions, with four of those games draws and nine of them wins. The downside is that in each of the last three games Arsenal has only scored one goal.
Still I suppose we can get a little relief by looking at Tottenham of whom the Premier League preview stated before the season began, “This will be a defining season for Postecoglou.”
I have never been quite so sure why people don’t know what to expect with Tottenham. In the last five seasons they have finished 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th, although not in that order. Now they are 12th So history suggests they might end up there, or maybe if they are lucky, 9th, 10th or 11th. It seems there is nothing much to be surprised about.
But it does also show what a miracle it was for Arsenal to keep themselves in the top four for 20 years. But then no one in the media wants to say anything positive about Arsenal so they won’t mention that.
Just three days ago I wrote an article headed Arsenal are now most certainly on the up, while most top clubs are on the down I still think that is right, although these wretched injuries are certainly testing the club to the limit.
The second half against Brighton showed signs of general fatigue, no doubt as a result of the illness in the squad. Odegaard was clearly not himself. With a fair referee, we would still have won.
We now have more proof that there has been a campaign of corruption negatively affecting Arsenal this season, just as there has been in previous seasons.
We keep saying it but sooner or later one of these referees who has either been asked to make incorrect decisions against us, or has done it under some kind of pressure, will remember that they once had some honour and admit to being under pressure to throw Arsenal games.
There is not even a discussion to be had this time. Lineker, Micah Richards and Danny Murphy incensed by that decision. Ian Wright has had enough and has Wrightly spoken up against it.
It was a tight game and could have gone either way. Credit to both teams, especially to Brighton in the second half. That it was possibly decided by that blatantly and knowingly wrong decision is a travesty.
VAR did watch replays and did deliberately make an incorrect decision because they saw that Saliba headed the ball BEFORE making contact with Pedro. There is really no other way of framing it, it’s a deliberate stitch-up to go with the previous 3 this season. A probable 9 points lost and our challenge probably over, although they will keep trying in the hope that the ugly and rigged officiating by the PGMOL will be punished severely. It will only take on referee and they should be falling over each other to be the one to speak out, so as they don’t get punished along with the rest. Until that happens, Arsenal will only be allowed to win cups. But you have to feel the change is no imminent.
Enough supporters have had enough and this has to stop. We deserve to watch football not a pale shadow of football ruled by abysmal refereeing.
Where are the petitions? Gary Lineker will be one of the first to sign.
The problem with petitions etc is twofold. One is PGMO is a secret society so has no public face. The other is that supporters of other clubs will instantly say, “Just typical Arsenal, blaming someone else”.
Yesterday immediately after the match I said: no penalty. As I had only seen one image of the incident I didn’t even know that Saliba touched the ball and this should have been spotted by the VAR. But no surprise he didn’t see it in the end. Just what we know to expect. Even if Saliba hadn’t touched the ball these incidents have never been given as a foul in the past and will never be in the future. But only when Arsenal is involded all the instructions go out of the window and we get in to refereeing to get the result we want….disgusting
The reason why such incidents never are given as a foul is because no player will ever risk to headbut an opponent deliberately because it is too dangerous and you might hurt or injure yourself. I think I have been doing football for some 55 years now as a player and a ref but I have never known such a decision. And probably will never see it again…
Sally Pally
“There is not even a discussion to be had this time. Lineker, Micah Richards and Danny Murphy incensed by that decision. Ian Wright has had enough and has rightly spoken up against it.”
Did they really? Well, well.
I haven’t watched or listened to a word since the final whistle. Not because of the result, but I simply didn’t want to listen to all the pundits tying them selves in knots trying to justify it.
I really hope this could be a turning point but sadly I very much doubt it Sally.
I will be very surprised if SKY and their puppet in chief Dermot Gallagher don’t double down in their defence of both Taylor and VAR tomorrow.
Anything short of outrage and condemnation, and the concession that Arsenal have yet again been cheated, wont be enough. And we simply will not get it.
They may, possibly, concede it was ‘harsh’, but even that is unlikely, and it certainly wouldn’t go half way to describing what it really was, which was cheating.
I’m not one for conspricacy theories but I’m beginning to be persueded! From Brighton players kicking the ball away to delay the restart being ignored, for which Declan got a very dubious second yellow, to the ludicrous penalty decision I am appalled at the bias shown by the referee. I cannot imagine that decision being given against any other team.