By Tony Attwod
- The Premier League is now approaching its ultimate crunch moment
- Arsenal’s red and yellow card numbers have collapsed this season. The figures are amazing.
So we are still a couple of days away from our next matchday, which is on May 18 at home to Burnley, although elsewhere today we seem to have Aston Villa against Liverpool at 8 pm and then another pause. I am not sure whether these arrangements are supposed to make it harder for Arsenal to win the League or the Champions League – probably both. But still, it does give the media time to get very worked up about Southampton and promotion to the Premier League, which they are undertaking with great gusto and apparently some misdoings.
Meanwhile, there is a growing set of demands for everyone to ditch VAR, which is interesting in that VAR was introduced because it was felt that referees couldn’t make decisions without it. Given that now the argument is that they can’t make decisions with it, or without it, maybe the solution is to ditch referees – or at least referees universally employed by the ultra-secret PGMO.
How about referees employed by a company with a website that openly explains how its staff reach their decisions? Although, come to think of it, that is rather radical.
So we have arguments in Scotland about the top of their league, and the Premier League, not to be outdone, are arguing about Southampton, And one might think that after all these years (league football started in 1888 as I recall) we might have got it right. Or at least got the refereeing right. And the more arrangements that are installed the worse it seems to get, which is a bit spooky.
In fact, here’s an idea: each time there is a dispute, the two captains should come together in the centre circle and have a boxing match to see which one was right. The first one to hit the floor loses that decision.
Or maybe not – perhaps not a good idea to encourage violence. But I really can’t recall a time of greater disputes and uncertainty in football, which I guess means that nothing much will be done. And as I am sure you will know, we are two points clear with two games to play, whilst being 14 points clear of Manchester Un, who are in third place. And yet, despite that being really quite a big gap, I am not sure I see too many people writing about it, presumably because that would be to note how good Arsenal are.
There is, however, a preview of Arsenal’s next game against Burnley in the Guardian, largely, I guess, because they realise they haven’t used a derogatory word about the club for three days. So now we are back with “Arsenal’s miserly defence”. Not Arsenal’s brilliant defence. Not Arsenal – with the best defence in the league. No, none of that. Arsenal’s “miserly” defence – which when you come to think about it, is what their defence is supposed to be. Especially with a defence as good as Arsenal’s.
And there is a recognition that things are going ok, but of course, there has to be a negative in the report somewhere, so there is mention of a “calamitous April”.,
Now apparently, we are doing ok because of David Raya and “the intervention of the video assistant referee against West Ham last week.” So Arsenal aren’t really that good at all, and presumably the league table lies.
And it seems Arsenal have a great decision to make now – to try and edge the remaining games 1-0 and so win the league, or go for goals against Burnley. The suggestion now being made is for Arteta to have another go at “moving Declan Rice out of midfield again.” Ah well, it gives the newspapers something to write about without going into any detail of just how good Arsenal have been this season, how many they score, how few they concede etc.
Speaking on the subject, Arteta is reputed to have said, “When he played as a full-back against Brighton, he was exceptional. But then the other night, it was something else,” said Arteta. “What is the cost of moving that player from one position to the other? That’s the balance that we need to try to find.”
But of course, one of the great things about Artet is that he has had the measure of these journalists for many a year and is often noted to be deliberately pointing the poor saps in the wrong direction just for fun. We shall have to wait and see.
Aston Villa vs Liverpool was put back to give the home team more time to prepare for the Europa League Final(!) In one way, moving the Burnley match is beneficial to Arsenal, since Bournemouth vs Man City is one day later; if we have won on Monday, the pressure will be so great that we may well be champions on Tuesday night…
well people are used to VAR and referees doing a number on Arsenal most of the times,so one correct decision from Var/referees has them go into meltdown.
I just want Arsenal to score more goals on Monday against Burnely because surely there is gonna be pay back time IMHO
Maybe players and managers should man up…and not behave like my 6 year old when something doesn’t go his way.
Rugby players largely manage to do it, why not PL?
Andrew Banks , you might have a point . If memory serves I’m sure we could easily recall games where your or my team have been on the bad side of some rotational fouling . Unfortunately referees seem much more inclined to stamp out retaliation (pun intended) .
Surely an unhindered campaign of violence is the problem . What we experience is seeing referees allowing bad fouls for the first half hour or so ‘letting the game flow ‘ ‘manning up’ is tantamount to letting thugs chop players down then the fouled team replace their fouled injured players which is followed by more fouling. By your logic , all of that is OK.
Sign a form before the match ‘ War with no quarter given or asked , or the option is a football match ‘
Evidently there is something like that going on in the referees mind , it’s just he/she hasn’t mentioned that to anyone.
Solution is to completely ditch pgmo referees with all their quirkiness and bias then hire referees with a backbone from the other side of the world and no more than twice a season so they can’t be got at .