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By Bulldog Drummond
- The real danger facing Arsenal is not Michael Oliver, it is PGMO, and here is why
- Match of the day gives biggest possible condemnation of referee in Wolverhampton game
And so another Arsenal match tomorrow – this is what the media love to call events “coming thick and fast” even though there is no “thick” that I can perceive. But fast, well, every three days, so maybe “yes”.
Indeed in the last 25 days, Arsenal have played eight games and there’s another one tomorrow, this being Girona away as the Europs end what might be called the “Let’s make something new up just to squeeze in two extra meaningless games,” phase.
Of the eight Arsenal games played so far in January, five have been in the league, and one in each of the three cups. In the League it has been, won three, drawn two, lost none. In the Cups (and I am including the Champions League as a cup for the purpose of this little ramble) it has been one win and two defeats. So it would be good to finish off the round of cup games with a win, to make it two wins, two defeats.
Leaving aside the penalties in the FA Cup in those eight games Arsenal have scored thirteen goals and conceded eight, so a fairly decent run of form – although if you just judged Arsenal on the media that is hardly the impression you’d get. The game is on TV in the UK, via TNT and Discovery +.
So it must be time to take a look at what Girona have been up to of late.
We have mentioned the club quite a few more times than one might expect, given that they are a fairly obscure small team. The reason for those mentions is basically that although they are indeed a very small club (the capacity of the ground is 14,624) they joined La Liga for the first time in 2022, via the playoffs. But what particularly brings them to our attention is the fact that they are part of the City Group, and thus another example of the fact that money can buy you pretty much most things in European football.
They are currently eighth in the league having won eight and lost nine of their league games with a balanced goal difference, having scored and conceded 29 goals. Their parent company, Barcelona, is currently third, seven points behind the eternal winners (Real Mad). Girona are 21 points behind Real Mad having won eight, drawn four and lost nine.
Perhaps the most noteworthy item however, is that Girona have lost their last three matches; at home to Sevilla, away to AC Mile and then away to Rayo Vallecano. But each game (including that match in the Champions League against Milan) has been lost only by one goal (twice by 2-1 and once by 1-0).
There is also a bit of interesting history in the club of late. They earned promotion to the top league in Spain for the first time in 87 years in the 2016/17 season, and in the summer of 2017, the notorious (in the sense of facing 115 charges in their domestic league) Manchester C and their infamous City Group then bought 44.3% of the club. Another 44.3% was meanwhile held by the Girona Football Group itself, under the leadership of none other than the brother of Pep Guardiola. So an Arsenal victory will not only be rather nice in itself but will be a defeat for a member of the notorious (in the sense of 115 charges) Guardiola family.
This will also be the first-ever match between Girona and Arsenal, so the oft-used “head to head” table, is for the moment looking rather blank.
In their seven games so far in the Champions League they have lost 1-0 to PSG away, drawn 2-2 with Feyenoord at home, beaten Slovan Bratislava 2-0, again at home, lost 4-0 to PSV away, lost 1-0 to Sturm Graz away, lost 0-1 to Liverpool at home and lost 1-0 away to Milan.
In their last six matches including both Champions and Domestic League games, minicity as they might be called, have won two and lost four, scoring seven and conceding seven, so we might say they are “keeping it tight”, although we wouldn’t because we don’t like well-worn old football phrases.
I’m not sure how seriously Arsenal are going to treat this one given that Arsenal are secure in the top eight sitting in third position, and the top eight automatically go through to the next round, avoiding the playoffs. Although it is true that if Aston Villa won 6-0 and Arsenal lost 6-0 then Vill would go through ahead of Arsenal.
But that is not going to happen, especially since PGMO won’t be allowed anywhere near this game.
“Given that PGMO can’t get near tomorrow’s game, Arsenal should qualify”
And in a nutshell that is the problem I/we have with Premier League referees.
Like the headline suggests, all things being equal we should be okay. And why is that? It’s because all we have to consider is the opposition. Not for one moment am I thinking, this referee is going to screw us.
This isn’t to say they are all perfect and don’t make mistake. Of course they aren’t and of course they do.
But the difference is I almost never feel the referee is going to be biased against us. He may make a bad call against us. He may make a bad call in our favour. They may not even be bad calls. Maybe I just ‘subjectively’ disagree. All I know is, I always go into a European match thinking the ref will be fair and apply the Laws Of The Game, equally to both sides.
Sometimes I see who we’ve got and think, ‘brilliant’ I think this ref is great. I NEVER think that in the Premier League.
I know from one of our regulars (sorry his name eludes me) who watches a lot of European football is not impressed by their referees either, but I can only say what I feel.
And of course as we know there has been some very high profile scandals on the Continent, as well as some diabolical performances, especially involving the Spanish giants, but as far as Arsenal are concerned I never go into a European night fearing the worst from the referee.
I ALWAYS fear the worst prior to a Premier League game. I wonder why that is?
https://www.givemesport.com/michael-oliver-stats-arsenal-premier-league-teams/
Nitram, Tony
Thanks as always for keeping things real.
I agree with you about European refereeing nowadays. However, I expect you remember the bad old days, when Champions League refereeing seemed as biased as that in the Premier League is now. I remember a Chelsea v Barcelona match quite a few years ago now, where Chelsea were on the receiving end of the worst refereeing performance I’ve seen outside of Escape to Victory. But it was bad in most important games at the later stages. We had a couple of dodgy decisions, the Van Persie one being the most out of order, you remember, when he went to shoot about 1/20th of a second after the ref blew his whistle.
I wrote a message the other day but included a link, which was naughty, so it got rightly binned. I mentioned a petition which is gaining ground but, as Tony says, singling out any one referee deflects from the fact that there seem to be statistical oddities across the board.
Girona away is one of those games where we could take our eyes off the ball, seeing as we are big favourites and very unlikely to fall out of the top 8. I hope we get a comfortable lead and then rest some seniors ready for the other big match on Sunday. Girona may well be better than their position in the table indicates, with no chance of qualifying and seemingly nothing to play for. A loss, however irrelevant it seems, can sometimes create negative momentum. Let’s hope for a comfortable win and a nice performance from MLS.
Sally Pally
Thank you for your kind words.
Of course I remember it well. Diabolical decision.
If I remember rightly we weren’t even leading and we had no reason to time waste, which of course he wasn’t anyway.
Yes, there were some terrible performances, there still are. Refereeing throughout Europe certainly still has issues, but by and large, as I say, I am far more confident of a balanced referee in Europe than I ever am in the PL.
Honestly, our refereeing and use of VAR is diabolical across the board.
Also our women’s experience on Sunday with a dubious penalty and an inexplicable red card to ensure that Chelsea would win, despite having been inferior for most of the game.
JUSTICE IS DONE.
MLS has won his appeal and his red card has been wiped off.
Eat your heart out PGMOL and Oliver. I wonder if they will now admit they got it wrong. My guess is no they won’t, they will probably just keep quiet rather than own up to cocking things up. And lets not forget that Webb gave Oliver his full backing so he is just as culpable as the idiots who made the red card call in the first place.
I fear the pannel overturning the red card will lead to some serious repercusions in the next weeks…. but I love the sight of Michael Oliver, Howard Webb and the whole PGMO standing their with their pants on their ankles (as the expression is in Dutch…)
But as I said…. we got to make sure we don’t give them any opportunity to hit is back as I am sure they will try their best…
The problem with the PIGMOB is that they believe nothing is wrong.
From what I have seen this season, I will add I avoid the EPL due to the officiating problems. Arsenal should now be top.
Apologising and saying “we have a system that works” because you rescind a red card proves nothing – the only way I can see change coming is to get rid of the PIGMOB and install a referees body that is open and transparent with their decisions.
I have got to a situation where, admittedly I only watch top football on TV, I turn after 10 minutes if I see bias in action. This means that I tend to watch only 1 in perhaps 20 matches for the full game. It is like every now and then a referee gets on the pitch and thinks ” How about I referee this one properly” – these games are, as a neutral fan, great because then you have players and officials smiling at one another and enjoying the game. Sadly that is far too rare these days.
I watch amateur football in my local area and I can honestly say the referees are a damn site more fair than the EPL and sadly a lot of UEFA, FIFA and European leagues which appear to be driven by media narratives about who or what team should be given credence over other teams. VAR has appeared to make ZERO difference to bias.
I say all this as a neutral fan who has no particular team I support –
BTW I like this site because it is one of the only sites that is taking this problem with football seriously – Thanks Tony for informative articles regarding a problem, if not tackled, could lead to fans walking away. It may not happen tomorrow but it surely will over time.
Sorry about the formatting in my comment- there should be spaces…