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By Walter Broeckx, the one and only unbiased ref at Untold
So Dowd we got and what did he get? Let us see how he did his game from my point of view.
| Min | Type | Decision | C/NC | points | weight | on |
| 1 | OTHER | Foul on Walcott | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | OTHER | Foul from Song | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | OFFSIDE | Offside against Blackburn | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 5 | OTHER | Foul on Arshavin – Dowd gives advantage signal. | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | OFFSIDE | Arshavin given advantage immediately passes to Clichy who is offside. AT that moment the advantage is lost so Dowd should have stopped the game and give the foul in favour of Arsenal. You can and must come back when the advantage is lost immediately. Because what is other the use of the advantage? | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | OTHER | Foul on Arshavin – tackle from behind not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | OTHER | Olson comes in like a madman and brings Sagna down.Foul given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | CARD | The ref gives no card for this over strong challenge? Ref this is a yellow card and it is not because of the player committing the foul gets hurt himself you shouldn’t book him | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 15 | OFFSIDE | Offside against Blackburn | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 16 | OTHER | Foul from Song | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 17 | OTHER | Offside against Blackburn | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 21 | OTHER | Foul on Squillaci | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 23 | OTHER | Foul from Koscielny | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 25 | OTHER | Foul from Sagna | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 30 | OTHER | Foul on Sagna | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 30 | CARD | The Blackburn defenders refuses to go away so Arsenal can take the free kick. Yellow card given | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 35 | OTHER | Foul on Walcott given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 35 | CARD | The Blackburn players kick the ball away twice after the ball going out and after a free kick been given within just seconds. When you see this happening as a tactic you should give a card and as they did it within a minute this looked tactical and you should act; Salgado was the second offender and should have been booked. | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 37 | OTHER | Foul from Arshavin | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 38 | OTHER | Foul from Koscielny not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 38 | OTHER | Foul on Wilshere from Salgado – advantage given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 38 | OTHER | Foul from Samba on Van Persie given. | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 38 | CARD | Ref Dowd gives the foul on Van Persie and also comes back to the first foul from Salgado on Wilshere and gives him a yellow card. He could have given a yellow card against Samba also. Maybe it was down to the player being fouled that he decided to give the yellow against Salgado? | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 43 | OFFSIDE | Offside against Arsenal | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 45 | OTHER | Foul from Song | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 50 | OTHER | Tackle from 2 players who don’t touch the ball on Arshavin a few meters outside the penalty area. Ref gives nothing. Totally wrong | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 52 | OTHER | Foul from Song advantage given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 53 | OTHER | Foul from Arshavin given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 53 | CARD | Dowd books Song for the foul more than a minute ago. This was typical Dowd who has to book Song when he does Arsenal. A tackle from the side not even aimed at the player but an attempt to block of the possible angle of a pass going forward | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 56 | OTHER | Foul against Sagna given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 56 | OTHER | Foul against Koscielny not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 60 | PENALTY | A Blackburn player goes down when he bumps in to Song. I felt it was more the Blackburn player throwing himself against Song. Dowd was right behind it and gave nothing. | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 61 | PENALTY | Van Persie tries to run on to a ball from Cesc and goes down when a Blackburn defender is close in his back. I think this also was not a penalty | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 67 | OTHER | Foul from Song given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 68 | OTHER | Foul on Sagna not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 69 | OFFSIDE | Offside against Blackburn | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 72 | OTHER | Cross to Van Persie who keeps the ball in play. The linesman gives it over the line. This was wrong as the goal line camera showed | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 76 | OTHER | Nzonzi comes in with a flying tackle from the front | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 76 | CARD | Ref Dowd gives the red card. It was a dangerous tackle and could have brought serious injury so a correct decision | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 80 | OTHER | Foul on Koscielny | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 81 | OTHER | Foul from Song | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 84 | OTHER | Cross from Arsenal, Samba diverts the ball to his own goal and the keeper saves it. The ball stays in play and for some reason Dowd gives a foul against Arsenal? What is the matter here? There was not even contact between any player from Arsenal and Blackburn and it wasn’t offside??? | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 85 | OTHER | Foul on Song | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 85 | CARD | Van Persie runs over the ball and a Blackburn player comes running forward out of the wall. Should give a yellow card for this. Dowd does nothing and he even lets the wall standing closer as they all crept forward. You should reposition the wall when a player has left the wall like that. | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 91 | OTHER | Foul given against Cesc at the corner flag. I could not see what happened | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 93 | OTHER | Hands given against Van Persie | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 31 | 39 | 58 | |||
| % | 67,39% | 67,24% | ||||
| CARDS | 3 | 7 | 42,85 | |||
| PENALTY | 2 | 2 | 100,00 | |||
| GOAL | 0 | 0 | ||||
| OTHER | 6 | 10 | 66,67 | |||
| 11 | 19 | 57,89 |
So if we look at the overall decisions one can only see that Dowd had a for his usual standard a good game. Not excellent by any means but still not as bad as we have seen in the past.
Also the weight score is in the same order so not much to complain about one could say.
If I take the important decisions, the bizar and the eye catching things as a ref his score drops. He took a few strange decisions once again on occasion and they all went against Arsenal. Like stopping play when Samba almost scored an own goal and the ball kept in play was very strange. Arshavin never getting a foul in his favour is another one.
Yet again I have seen a few things about Dowd and things that keep returning each game.
The yellow card from Song. Well he just has to book him. I think 5 games with Dowd and Song and 5 yellow cards. I think Dowd is jealous of Song his hair cut or colour. Why else would he always want to book him?
Arshavin. Dowd doesn’t like him at all. He hardly gets any foul in his favour from Dowd. Also something that could be seen in our previous games. Is it the World cup going to Russia that is bothering Dowd? Was he promised some job in the organisation after his hopefully quick retirement as a ref and does he think Arshavin is responsible for losing this opportunity? Just a wild guess but it is strange that whatever tackle or even double tackle that is been made on Arshavin he just let the game continue.
But when praise is due, I will give. After letting the first tackle on Sagna going by without a card I feared for the well being of our players. But when later on Nzonzi threw himself at Koscielny he did what he had to do and gave a red card. Finally I would say. We could have had two broken legs in this game.
As an Arsenal fan with Dowd you are already happy when he doesn’t do a Newcastle against us again. This time he was a bit more balanced, still a few things that make you raise your eye brows. Finally numbers of fouls not given that he should have given: 4 fouls for Arsenal and 1 for Blackburn.
The failures of Herbert Chapman
Making the Arsenal: how did we get here?
Walter I really enjoy your ref analysis
However I would argue that Offside should be ignored unless the ref overrules the linesperson’s decision. Which you will agree is very very rare. The Ref relies upon the linesperson to get it right. Your results are diluted by including these 3rd party decisions, whether they are right or wrong. This is because you analyse the Ref as a person not as a team.
Anyhow just a thought…. keep up the good work
I was dreading this game with Dowd reffing but I thought he did OK and for a change did not influence the result. The loss of two points was yet again entirely down to our under achieving on the important occasion. It is a big, big worry and it’s difficult to see how we can overcome this psychological barrier which is preventing us from performing to our true capabilities in these sort of games when there is so much at stake. The team looked as if they had lead in their boots apart from the first 15 minutes. If we do not score early you can see the tension rising in the players. Compare us to Man U who rise to the occasion every time. So this time I have to say well done to the ref, its not your fault we lost.
Arsenal are SHITE! We’ve lost our bottle since, Manure beat the invincibles!
Going over the stats is pointless, blaming the ref is pointless. If the team and/or manager can’t G’up themselve to beat BB at this stage of the race, what can we say as Arsenal supporters.
WENGER needs to wake up and spend some cash on experince. As now all of our so called young and gaining experience players will be vying for pastures new at the end of the season. Somewhere they can win trophy as ther training as Arsenal FC youth developement team is now complete.
BO BO BO!
What about the elbow to Koscilny face?
Thanks for the review 🙂
What always interests me about comments such as MPeP is the complete and absolute lack of argument involve. It is as if the notion that one can make a statement such as “Arsenal are SHITE” and then, because one has made it, it becomes true.
Walter spends ages looking at all the in’s and out’s and considering all the evidence, and then people trot along and say, “you are talking rubbish” but with no evidence.
There’s not even an attempt to consider whether a team that is second in the league can be called “shite” or not.
I wonder what makes such people tick. I don’t know, so I can’t produce any evidence, but I guess in the end I find that a more fascinating issue to debate than their actual comments.
I totally agree with Mick on this one i think the ref did a feel good job and we failed to win not out of bad decision but by our own impotence in front of goal and suspect tactics by Wenger, it was down to us this time. The ref at one point i felt that he wanted us to win what with the red card which was suspect and also the added minutes. For crying out loud we had close to 20 minutes to score against 10 men of black burn, can we blame the ref????????????
@ Walter Regarding giving an advantage which results in an offsides, thus “taking away ” the advantage. Is it not the player’s responsibility to stay onside? The fouled player presumably has the option to dribble forward or play another pass. I saw a similar situation in another game which was called exactly as this one.
@teesong
No. The responsibility is with the referee to decide whether there is or isn’t an advantage after playing on. If Arshavin plays the ball as he’s takled then regardless of how play is stopped the ball should go back to the foul. If it happened the exact same way in another game then that ref was wrong too. It happens all the time.
@MPeP Your right Arsenal are shite. So why are you bothering to support such a shite team? Why not choose another team to whine about and jog off and bother their supporters.
@Walter as usual great review and I like the way that you always add your own insite from the Ref’s point of view. I thought Dowd was alright on Saturday but I’ve come to expect so much less from most of the current batch of refs.
We have to keep the faith. it’s not over yet.
Gooner for life.
What did you think about the elbow on nasri? I heard on the radio that “he (nelson) didn’t go out to do him”, but I’m never convinced by what these people say, particularly when it’s stan collymore! He said nelson led with the elbow, and implied it was just unfortunate that nasri got hit. If what he says is true, is this not dangerous play and a red card still?
They always talk about intent, when it’s not necessarily possible to judge that, not in all cases anyway, but when someone is acting dangerously on the pitch, is that not cause for a red card regardless of intent? I ask more in respect of the laws of the game
Tony…It is very simple as to what makes such people tick. Lets call a spade a spade here. They are ignorant pure and simple I am afraid, all too common amongst football supporters.
@tony dont male lmae excuses…have guts to say the right thing even though it contradicts your blind support for Wenger….
Arsenal WILL NEVER WIN anything again as long as Wenger is in-charge….I GUARANTEE it….
@MPeP- Is that a reasonable contribution to make on the well- researched analysis by Walter? I really do not think that is a reasonable comment on the time one takes to watch a 90-min match and provide an analysis of the official.
Or you are just plain retarded?
On what possible basis can you guarantee anything Abhinava? What guarantee will you give me? This is gibberish you are writing, there is no logic, no argument, no analysis, no gathering of data – just a statement. What’s the point?
The elbow on Nasri looked deliberate to me. The aim to put our most creative player out of the game as we had already taken control. Therefore the ref did have an impact on the game (by not sending him off), as playing with a man down from mid-way through the first half onwards would have made it a lot more difficult for Blackburn to defend.
I’m sure if the same thing had happened at Old Trafford it would have resulted in a dismissal and a marginal win for Manu (even if, like us, they were having an off-day).
Interestingly I’d like to see some stats on how long is left when players get sent off against us as opposed to when players get sent off against Manu. Opposition players only ever seem to get sent off against us with 10 minutes or so left, ie. when there is not long left to defend a lead/tie. The only exceptions I can actually think of are Man City away this season and any time when one of our players get their legs broken. Whereas Manu, as well as very rarely getting players sent off when they deserve it (every game I see vidic play he seems to regularly get away with committing rugby tackles, but very rarely gets booked for them) also seem to have players sent off against them very early in games.
Excuses, excuses, excuses, excuses, excuses, excuses…
6 seasons of excuses..1 more comin right up
@Tony
I also find it fascinating, how do the minds of these people work? They make laughable comments with no evidence to support it in the belief they’ve hit upon some universal, undeniable truth.
Frankly, I think Mick is right. They are just stupid and angry, but what really entertains me is how smug and arrogant they are with it!
I thought Dowd had a decent enough game, nothing unjust or biased in his performance and he had little bearing on the outcome of our game, for once.
Unfortunately Arsenal failed to produce the required performance which can and does happen to all teams occasionally (even Man Utd). Knowing Man Utd had won before our game added extra pressure and imo Arsenal were guilty of trying too hard, forcing the issue almost. At this crucial time of the season small things can take on greater importance. I think having the opportunity to play first can give a good team a psychological advantage on the title run-in. It appears very strange to Me that, at such a crucial part of the season, one team in particular is allowed the opportunity of consistently kicking-off before their rivals.
Why should the authorities allow such an obvious advantage?
Walter, I still say the same thing.
Sky need a story and that story to sell the premier league is ManUtd breaks Liverpools record before RedNose retires.
If they cant fix again the result at the Emirates they will fix the Utd game “Vidic should not have been on the field” at 2-0 down and 10 men it would have been waves of Westham attacking and NO come back possible the gap would have closed.
We should have been doing double reviews on the last matches of the season Utd and Arsenals.
Micko – I’m not exaggerating when I say Utd have avoided clear and obvious red cards 7 times this season at a minimum. Scholes twice, giggs once, rooney once, rafael once and neville twice – and that’s purely from what I’ve seen, which is very far from everything. And these aren’t marginal decisions, these are really easy ones. I think every team gets away with it once or twice a season, but even then, those ones are almost always slightly borderline decisions that the ref may have just got wrong, but Utd have got away with at least 7 clear ones already.
Grant said that vidic should have been sent off in their last game, and given their record this season, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if they’d got away with another blatant one.
Also, it would be interesting if someone could go back through the ref reports and note down just how many players have avoided red cards against us for dangerous tackles, not so much the ones where the ref *could* have given a red card, but the ones where he really should, but didn’t. I’ll bet it’s approaching 10 times. I can only think of one time where we really got away with one, in the 1st game of the season where joe cole got sent off, rightly, but then wilshere did exactly the same thing and got away with it. I’m sure there have been other more borderline ones, but that was blatantly unfair to liverpool imo.
The ref did a good job this time round and Arsenal should blame themselves for dropping easy points at home this season!Our game has generally been poor all season attested by the fact that reporters no longer use certain adjectives while reporting our matches.Previously journos would run out of adjectives and words like stunning, brilliant ,magnificent,sensational etc were liberally used, but not this season!The squad has generally looked lethargic and might require overhauling at end of season. AW should also stop talking about the mental status of the team as they come out negatively! Otherwise he should employ a motivational someone to psyche up the players before matches!!!!!
About the “elbow” on Koscielny. I think in this case Santa Cruz jumped up with this hand in front of him. Koscielny came in jumping from behind Santa Cruz and his head made contact with the arm of Santa Cruz. I do think that it was not a deliberate “elbow” this one, so I thought Dowd had this right.
About Nasri on the replay I watched from behind the goal it looked as if the heads clashed so not a foul as no sensible human being will risk his head like that because clashing heads is dangerous for both persons and you never know who will suffer most.
Maybe just another argument (for me) in those decisions that I really am not after killing the refs in my reviews (not even Dowd 😉 ) and that I really don’t look at it in a way to paint all and everything in Arsenals way.
Davi
Corruption exists within our game. You have seen it, I have seen it, others have seen it.
As football(Arsenal) fans there may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustices, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest about them.
@walter – you are right about the nelson challenge. Should have made an effort to watch it before commenting. Apologies. He did lead with the elbow but that’s not where the contact was made.
Davi, no problem my friend.
But I must disagree with your numbers of MU players that should have been sent off.
Because you have forgotten Ferdinand against us with his karate kick in the stomach of Sagna and also Fletcher who ran after Webb and pushed him because Webb for once didn’t give a foul
Indeed you are right again. There’s been so many, it’s easy to forget. I now have 9 incidents to cite 🙂
You missed the foul on Nasri. If an opponent jumps up and elbo’s you in the throat, it is a foul and I think Nasri was in the penalty area. Them kind of challenges are dirty, cowardice and dam right dangerous and if the Refs and the FA let these sort challenges go on, someone is going to get a broken neck.
Shearer used them dirty tactics regularly thru-out his career and for me, he was not a great player, I remember as one of the dirtiest players in his time and a big cry baby when things didnt go his way much the same as the dirty players of today in the EPL holding hands with the bent Referees and the FA. Currupt lot!
You would have thought that we were playing in a pre-season friendly the way they performed. I can’t believe that the players were not up for this game. It was the start of a run of cup-finals and just like the Carling Cup final we didn’t turn up. In the past Wenger has always advocated that this Arsenal squad has strong ‘mental-strength’. They just drive me mental. I will always support any player wearing an Arsenal shirt and I try my best to be upbeat in any given situation but yesterday I couldn’t defend them. Did they really care? Do they care enough? They talk a good game that’s for sure. I’m not going to jump on the Wenger out band-wagon that is gathering pace quicker than Road Runner can do the 100 metres but he needs to do something before it’s too late. I know he isn’t Merlin but we need him to do some magic. The attitude of these players at the moment has to be questioned. I can’t work whether they are bottle-jobs or just not bothered enough. They are running out of opportunities and I’d say we are in last chance saloon now. I really hope they are hurting like us Gooners are right now. They don’t get the stick on a Monday morning at work like we do.
Davi – How can you miss Vidic red? That’s 10.
@Walter,
I hate to say this, but I’ve never seen an Untold ref review that I disagree with more than this one. After reading your review, I went back and watched the Nasri injury somewhere around 6 times, and I still don’t see how that shouldn’t have been a PK to Arsenal.
This is what I see, based on the angles shown on Arsenal TV. At 12:54, the cross came to Nasri in the box, and the defender jumped TOWARDS Nasri with his elbow and forearm out. His forearm hit Nasri on the neck, which would have knocked him to the ground regardless of the head contect. Furthermore, as Nasri was falling to the ground, the defender put his hand on Nasri’s back and pushed him downwards.
I agree that the head contact that caused the injury to Nasri wasn’t deliberate, and thus shouldn’t have resulted in a red card based on that alone, but shouldn’t it have been a PK anyway? And I’m not normally one to complain about PK’s not being given. I would much rather the ref err on the side of caution and not make a call, but I thought this one was pretty egregious. Is there some referee’s perspective on this that I’m missing?
And on top of that, what about the handball in the box that wasn’t called just after 16 min? Again, I’ve watched that one multiple times, and I think it should have been called. The announcers called it “accidental,” but the defender clearly had his arm OUT. And the shot wasn’t at point blank range, either. The defender had time to get out of the way, in my opinion, but instead, he obstructed the shot with his arm. And again, I’m not someone who normally complains about penalties not being given, but that one seemed pretty egregious too. Out of the two calls that I’ve mentioned, shouldn’t Arsenal have gotten a PK for at least one of them?
I don’t think that either call was SO obvious that you could conclusively accuse Dowd (and/or his linesmen) of corruption for missing them, but I also don’t see how you can do a ref review without even addressing them. I honestly hate to register this criticism because I’m such a fan of what you guys are doing on this blog, but I really do feel like these calls should have been addressed. Is there something here that I’m just missing? I’m definitely willing to accept that you know the rules of the game better than I do 🙂
@anne
I thought the blocked shot was a penalty too. The problem is there is no consistency in these decisions. So we don’t know what to expect from the referees. I would have given that one though. (Especially when you consider the penalty ManU got, which never was one)
Regarding the Nasri incident, I do think you are right when you say the defender led with his arm and was leaning into Nasri. I think leading with his arm was intentional. But we see that sort of thing so often in England that I never even considered it a penalty shout. Though I’m sure I’d be screaming bloody murder about that if I were a ManU fan and it happened to them.
Anne, I will review my review regarding the handball and let you know. Most of the time I stop the images when I write things down but sometimes I don’t.
And as I do the ref reviews with the mute on (because it has been proven that the crowd noise has an influence on the refs) so I don’t hear the crowd or the commentators.
So I could have missed it. Will have another look
Oh the joy of technology.
Just reviewed the handball incident which I didn’t mentioned in my report. So my view on this: the ball hit the upper arm of the defender. If it would have been his under arm then it was a penalty for me. Now the ball hit him high on his upper arm and you cant get that out of the way imo. So no penalty for me.
Just as the United penalty was no penalty for me. The ref in the Utd game made a gesture that the WHU player moved his arm but this was not the case. His arm was in a normal position not far away from his body and the ball came from very close. So this also wasn’t a penalty.
And Vidic should have beens sent off in the wHU game.
@Walter,
Thank you very much for getting back to me. I still disagree with you re the handball, but great minds can’t always think alike, I guess. Plus, I’m not a football referee and I must admit that I’m extremely biased 🙂 Your ref reviews are one of the highlights of my week, so keep up the good work!
Cheers. -A
@Shard,
I guess what got to me about the Nasri incident was that the defender seemed to be moving towards Nasri, rather than the ball. It looked to me like he was aiming at the player, and I thought it was a foul. But I guess with the slow-motion replay you can nitpick these things all you want. That’s why I’ve always had the general rule of complaining about penalties that were wrongly given, but not about ones that weren’t given.
On another note, I said this in a comment earlier in the week (March 31, to be precise):
“After what happened at the Newcastle game, I would personally expect Phil Dowd to be on his best behavior during this coming match. I would expect him to avoid controversial decisions against Arsenal, and maybe throw out some controversial decisions against Blackburn, just to allay suspicion. But that’s just speculation. We’ll see. I guess the next match is an acid test of EPL corruption in a lot of ways…”
Was I right? I’m not sure. I think he was definitely better than usual…If he’s actually responding to public exposes of corruption, I’d say that’s a very good sign for the future. And I’d also say that the work that Walter, Tony et al are doing on this blog has had a direct impact on his performance. Wishful thinking? I hope not.
Oh, and one more thing…I agree w/ both of you about the ridiculous calls in the ManU match. The only reason I didn’t mention it in my response is because I thought it was so obvious that I didn’t have anything to add 🙂
While we’re worrying about the Arsenal FC’s lack of ambition, Wenger’s stubborness and the team’s performance, you are splitting hair on the ref’s decisions. What difference does it make? It doesn’t change the fact we are a losing team, and everyone is really sick and tired of excuses.
Jim, it makes about 20 points of a difference.
Utd wouldnt be top if games were fairly refereed. Thats even with the poor displays we had against WestBrom home and away and Blackburn etc.
So why moan about lack of ambition ? and where do the hell do you get an idea Arsenal are not ambitious ? Why did we build the Emirates ? Why did we try copying Barca’s youth acadmey set up ? Is that not ambition in itself ?
@Jim
Some perspective please. Yes we want to win but my club is about more than winning. Winning is the goal but we identify with the club, we live with and through the players and manager. WIN OR LOSE!!!
Jim, you sound like a spoiled little boy. If there is one good thing about that team from the other end of Seven Sisters is that they are genuinely happy at what they have accomplished this year and they have won nothing. Yes, they don’t have our history nor our recent run of success (suspiciously lining up with Wenger’s tenure with us)but at least they are not overrun with people with little or no feeling for the club. Personally, I find despair a little bit over the top.
Walter, why does it matter if a head butt is deliberate or not? Surely it is a late tackle?
Maybe it’s got to the stage now where, when the players see who’s refereeing the game, their heads actually go down and they are thinking how can we win this game with this ref officiating (I know I probably would if I had been a player in that Newcastle away game).
Trying to think of why we played so poorly in a game we had to win !
Manu will still drop points this season but unfortunately I think we still will too, I’m not sure the belief is there anymore.
I wish if you can make an extra row on your statistics in regard our players individuall commitment and surely the blame game will end on referee and conspiracy.
Our players and manager are there to stand against all odds that come up during the season.
Unfortunately the weak point in Mr Wenger is that he do not want players with strong attitude.Flamini,Gallas and to some extent even Adebayour shoved swept easily.
I do see this man he want a very quite dressing room.Only he want to be surrounded by yes men.Fantastic players technically top notch but no one that i see from this team a propper leader.
Wilshere is growing up fast and if it was not for his presence on the last game that crazy referee he would have done it again.
For me the season is over but next season i would love to see Jack leading our squad.
Games against the Tiny and Newcastle speak volume in regard our players attitude.
Alex are you winding us up ?
Players that show commitment ?
Adebayour ? After one good season and getting his pay rise he became the laziest player to maybe ever put on an Arsenal Jersey.
Flamini a great player but has never been commited to anyone other than himself he walked out on his french club on a free to arsenal and then the same to Milan and will do the same when his current contract runs out for more cash hes commited to no one only himself.
Gallas instead of lining up incase the penalty was blocked to get the rebound was crying on the ground the other end of the field against Brum the day Eduardo broke his leg.
I wouldnt call that commitment.
They should be committed those 3 more like.
Well RedGooner, Adebayor showed his commitment to Arsenal yesterday when wearing a Real shirt. 😉
And it is the same pattern with every club he goes: at the start he works hard to win the fans over and then he gets a big contract and then he becomes lazy. It was the same at City…