I am sorry if you tried to comment on this article during much of Saturday morning. There was a fault on the page. It has now been resolved. I’d like to say I fixed it, but in truth I just fiddled around a bit and swore quite a lot.
Tony
D-Sanchez-Cabello
Matters European
I agree with Thierry about Atletico, they’re a bunch of scoundrels and could frustrate us terribly. Their style is like a horrid blend of Dortmund and Chelsea. They’re also the only team I’ve watched this year that stopped Real Madrid creating a chance.
Diego Costa reminds me of Lewandowski’s evil ‘Spanish’-Brazilian twin. Arda is like Hazard after a decade in the French Foreign Legion.
Against us they will cede possession, drop back to the halfway line and wait… and wait – commit some fouls, pass it around and if they can be bothered, break away like the ‘clappers.’ God knows what the ‘clappers’ are like…
God: “Like Atletico Madrid breaking away, my son.”
PSG would be my opponent of choice. They are a collection of fine players, but hastily assembled.
They lack the cohesion of Atletico and the general class of the other teams in the draw. They present a similar threat to what Man City did a few years ago, in that they are dangerous via individual talent, but not so polished/organised as to dominate you completely. Ibrahimovic would be their main threat and whilst indisputably class, has a tendency to be ‘out-foxed’ by our high line.
I’d rather we avoid Bayern…
The Spanish Giants I could live with. Messi might still be out and Barca have struggled with their balance ever since David Villa’s leg break. Real Madrid, strong as they are always allow you space to play.
Matters Mancunian
A few months ago, back in August, we encountered them in an odd match in Helsinki. Odd, mainly because it was in Helsinki, but also because we did to them what they normally try to do to us. We won 3-1, with goals from Walcott, Ramsey and Giroud. But what significance does a pre-season match have to an important Premier League one? Not much I hear you say… aside from that we are still those same teams.
For the first half they had the possession, but were undone by an incisive Ramsey pass/thrusting run by Theo. Roles reversed for the second goal and Giroud lobbed Hart for the third. I included Giroud’s lob simply because I enjoyed it, but the other two are probably more relevant to today’s game. Theo offers us a different attacking option and with the midfielders we have, he’ll be able to exploit their highline.
They generally play 4-4-2, which against the better teams can leave them light in the centre. It also demands their fullbacks be more cautious.
The last time City played 4-4-2 against a team of slick, interchangeable midfielders they lost 3-1 at home. We may not be Bayern, but we have plenty of midfielders.
Sagna might or might not be back depending on which outlet you read. Podolski could be on the bench. I make the team as follows:
Wojciech
Sagna/Jenko Per Koz Gibbs
Flamini Ramsey
Rosicky/Wilshere Ozil Walcott
Giroud
I’m feeling strangely confident about this game – then again, I suffer from extreme optimism…
Cheers,
DSC
Oops
I’d rather play a very good side than a bunch of scoundrels any day. I don’t mind losing if all things are equal but losing to cheats leaves a bad taste.
That said, I’d much rather draw and beat Barca.
I have not kept up with news on why today’s game is being played at such a silly hour but, being cynical, blame it on some sly plan by Sky to derail us and boost their own profits.
Another consideration is the match officials.
Sigh!
Wouldn’t it be nice if the relative merits of the two teams were the only thing to debate?
Thanks for the post DSC and that projected team lineup… we ARE looking awesome these days 🙂
COYG! Let’s hear you sing, 2-0 to the Arsenal!
Come on Arsenal, we know what we have to do. Let City’s home record fall today.
In the BBC commentary:
> 1214: Join the debate at #bbcfootball- Manchester City v Arsenal (1245 GMT)
> Former Arsenal and Manchester City goalkeeper David Seaman: Big game today, Come on Arsenal! Sorry City fans, loved my time there but I’m sure you understand! #COYG
Who better to follow?
COYG!
MU better than Arsenal, but linesman seems happy to flag us offside for no reason….no footballing reason I mean
http://footballisfixed.blogspot.co.uk/
MC I mean – maybe MUC covers all eventualities
So that is now twice that the assistant on the far side has denied Arsenal a promising attack for an imaginary offside. Certainly the first when Monreal was flagges offside and the MC defence all over the place was promising.
OK, halftime 2-1. What do you all think?
We are giving them too much space i think, and losing ball once too often, but i hope now that we will control the game when we come out again, as we know we can do.
45 mins to go lads and lets turn on the pressure now.
We are being bullied all over the pitch. The linesman is not good and the ref far too lenient with City fouling.
We aren’t out of it yet. COYG
From the BBC:
> 1335: BBC Radio 5 liveManchester City 2-1 Arsenal
> BBC Radio 5 live Sport reports that the Arsenal media team say Laurent Koscielny has suffered a “laceration”, a deep cut, rather than a more serious knee injury.
1) this is what i warned since the everton game, keep the dissapointment there and dont transmit it, but the Arsenal fans and the media have to put the team under pressure and look what a game, its not brilliance of city, its our lack of concentration.
2) please somebody explain what is the offside rule to the assistant, that first one was before they scored their goal, it could have been on the other side.
3) Now Wenger put bacl the concentration in your players mind, we are far better, we just lack believe.
Let’s hope the referees assistant grows some balls in the second half
It’s not our day
How is that challenge on Giroud not a booking
Giroud is not in the class of a Suarez or Aguero, that is for sure.
That should be a penalty
Get I Theooooo!
Yet another poor offside call …of course against us
The rigged game Mandy. lol. Thanks for that FIF link.
Very hard to play against 14
Is the commentary at BT Sport actually unbiased. They call it as it actually is!
Yes, FIF on fire at the moment! Every decision has gone against us, but this game could yet cost the team Atkinson clearly supports. Was wondering who the new manchester Utd would be, looks like we have seen them today. That said, seems like our defence has at times slipped back into a few bad old habits
And again Nb Not offside when he scored. These guys are rubbing our faces in it.
Na$ri is pathetic. The ref is bent. That last goal was good!
Officials have wrongly disallowed two goals and a pen.
SO should have been 6-5 to AFC. oh well, it all evens out in the end.
Now city get a pen from a clear dive. This is the most biased officiating I have even seen, this beats Taylor. Atkinson and his officials are bent. We have seen the new Utd, city will win the league if this is an indication. Shameful
The ref and his linesmen must bu due a long holiday. This has been the worst refereeing all season. It is difficult enough to beat them on a level playing field but to have an inside goal ruled out, a penalty ruled out and two other through balls wrongly ruled out plus that penalty was a dive!
We have been incredibly unlucky and I feel robbed and cheated!
Well i can’t say the ref caused us this defeat, i only see that we are losing possession and our great ball keeping skills are non existent today, which would have stopped ManC in their tracks. I stopped counting the amount of times we lost the ball, not so much misplaced passes today, but actually letting them take the ball away from us, loss of concentration in key moments that let ManC look better than they are today. 6-3, that score did not reflect ManC brilliance, which they were, a little, but our performance really let them look better than they were, not keeping the ball and losing it too easily in a tackle.
Arsenal, time to regroup now and start performing again.
Nicklas was offside, but there were 3 wrong offsides and one penalty not given nonetheless
para, site the right one for you?
As you are a coincidence theorist, the fact that I’ve called you parasite is a complete accident…. I am sure you’ll understand
Ivan Gazidis is a very powerful man in football, he is not doing his job if he does not challenge what we have witnessed today. Yes we were tired, especially the likes of giroud, sagna looked unprepared,we were at times off the pace and at times our defence was shocking but I have never seen so many key game changing decisions go against one team in this country at this level. We were all expecting the pgmol to do their worst, and we have not been let down . Doubt if we have seen the last of them either.
Disgusting, that goes to BT sports as well!!!
this is not fair..I think we did good, but not good enough? I feel sorry for the players..
Well we have nine days to turn around things for Chelsea, we can do that. But Giroud really looks like he can do with some help. Anyone know what was wrong with Gibbs today? Monreal was being chased all game
Well, we lost this one, but I am proud of the way our guys fought to the end even although they were obviously exhausted and at the end hardly had the energy to tackle back.
The officials have rightly been condemned for their multitude of wrong decisions, but the faceless bureaucrats in grey suits who arranged our schedule are equally at fault.
I would need to watch the incident again, but I am not sure that Nick was offside.
Lets hope Kos isn’t too badly injured.
For now, the players will be as disappointed as we are – so lets get behind them and give them full support!
Now you see how good a player Gibbs is…England have one position shored up.
@Mandy Nothing will change. Its small potatoes in the general scheme of global corruption.
Maybe Marcus, but that shouldn’t mean the club taking this sort of thing lying down ….week in week out Agree on Gibbs, Monreal maybe short of games, but was constantly exposed on the left. Losing kos caused real problems a very hard game for TV to step into so short of match practice.Thought at times we needed arteta to calm things down a bit. Good to see theo back though. Expect some very smug pundits for the next few days with very little debate of even viewing of certain decisions. Have a feeling Jose and Roman might be having a word with Atkinson for maybe overdoing it today, this might not help Chelsea in the long run!
Im utterly livid and its not because we lost the match but how influenced that loss was.. when will they keep getting away with it?
1. Their first goal shouldnt have stand as it was offside prior to the corner
2. They denied us a clear penalty and gave them one from a dive
3. Our two perfect goals wrongly ruled offside
Atkinson and his assistants were out in full force today and no doubt Riley gave the instructions… Bent corrupted league
Well I think it is now official Smugface on MOTD is right we won’t win the league it has already been bought.
Walter, when you can could you please comment on the Bendner goal, the handball, the phantom offsides, and the City penalty, plus anything else I may have missed. At least i am out tonight and won’t have to listen to Hansen et al.
Truth be told: we were well beaten by Man City. Caught us coming out of our own half too many times and gave them too much space to run into. And they took their chances very well.
Nonetheless, Walcott was very, very good and Gnabry deserves more opportunities to play in the team.It was also great to find that Kos didn’t have a major injury.
If we lour lessons well and rest properly over the next 9days, I reckon that our home game against Chelsea is winnable.
As for the moans that will soon envelope this blog, my take is: let them have their time in the sun before they disappear down their respective holes again.
Referee this, referee that…In case you didn’t notice Wenger has a very poor record against top teams. Even some mid-table teams can brag about having a better record than Arsenal.
Yes, Arsenal can beat the lousy teams but when it comes to very good sides, it’s another story.
This season in the PL, Arsenal had failed to beat ManU (despite Moyes instabillity effect) and Everton at home. Wenger failed both tactically and as a motivator.
In big games, there must be a different kind of preparation and Wenger doesn’t seem to prepare his team mentally. No motivation skills.
Against Everton, Martinez exposed him as tactically inept.
As long as Wenger is the manager, be used to this kind of defeats against top teams.
Am proud of this loss, its much better than giving up and defending only @ 3-1
First they were boosted by the Bayern game while we were on the opposite side, they were playing at home, we were a bit tired, and i dont know why the f*** Do we go to panic mode whem we take a goal in.
Tactic wise, dont know what was wrong with Artrta, but we took 6 cause of his abscence, nobody can cover his place, no one in the whole EPL. Why panic i dont know, why do we have to think we are below bar i dont know, we scored 3 goals today, and why do the assistants rule ebery chance as offside, now why do we have to be always on the bad side of officiating.
@para, yes I agree we were not good enough, but at those moments we could win a game if it was not as bent as it was, weather they were on agenda or not, this needs to stop, when we enter the panic mode, we need a one chance to get back, and then some ref or assistant steps up.
An offside goal at an important moment ruled out, again the power walcot ( running behind the defence with his pace) also was ruled out by incorrect offside rules, we didnt deserve to win, sure, but this is not acceptable to take away our chance.
As for the penalty, of it was a dive something need to happen, to stop those dives.
Today lesson, Wilsher on left, NO please, no body can replace Arteta, and hell Giroud needs to things: a rest and to take away pressure off himself. Walcot was our best player, and when u need evey little help to survive this match, boooom an injury.
Please can we now put this week in its place and not transfer it to the Chelsea game,if possible.
And no AAA are welcome today.
Dortmund and Bayern are very poor sides Sperez
City are a very good team and yes we didn’t keep the ball as well as we should. they may go on to win the league but we won’t be far off them base on our performance today the lads deserve a couple of days off before Chelsea on the 23rd.
COYG
week in week out Mandy, and yet AW says the league is 99% uncorrupted.
Of course, a little yeast leavens the whole loaf, but I am not sure AW is coming out and defining the 1%
If he stood up and called it as it is, it could get spicy. At the moment, he as much as anyone perpetuates the idea that the league is clean.
This was terribly blatant. They telegraphed it with the fixture rigging, and then rubber stamped it with manifestly dreadful officiating.
Your site football is fixed pulls no punches….
We live in a very uber controlled reality. Neohyperrealities is how FIF describes it.
Sperez go to hell, leave this site, you are not welcome. For god sake what are you? Get out man go have a life, what an annoying prick. I cant believe, nobody can now convince me you are an Arsenal fan, no way you are not, we lost 6-3 and you still come to enjoy this bull**** you say. Cant you just be a little biased to your time you claim to support. Walter, Tony, i think you believe in democracy, then lets vote to have him banned. And am number 1.
Just like last season, I have decided not to watch our remaining fixtures in the epl, as this is beyond ridiculous! I dont have the heart to see The PGMOL are rubbing our noses in it. This is more than just bias, it’s something else. I’m very sad to admit that Arsene will never lift the epl trophy ever again. Also, a player can only stand so much of this. The spirit within this team is amazing, because what I saw today is beyond demoralizing, for any player.
I cannot wait to read Arsene Wenger’s book when he retires.
Tony,Walter or any of the mods please van sperez already…had enough of him
You want the league, then take it. Counter attack the media, this site and other brother sites (in supporting Arsenal, not The stupud freaky sites) should take next game against chelsea to get back om track. I know its hard, but you should try to gather people in the stadium before the game start, and sing and chant, for every single player, specially the ones not om form today, chant against the refshit, and chelsea, we need to carry our team, they are fighters, but their confidence fluctuate too much,we should take that to our advantage, look how we destroyed teams whem we started with a goal or a great chamce, Napoli home comes to mind, we need this next game to be the game as a win, we have to fight with our players to win this league, and we should stop those negative atmosphere and pressurw to transfet to the players mind.
Come on Gooners have some pride, our boys didnt stop trying to get back into the game, they are warriors, they just lack believe. Give them believe for god sake
*ban
The appearance of the despicable troll sperez is predictable, but he is doing nothing more than showing how little he knows about football and the football rules. No doubt his emergence from under some stone or other will encourage the sewer rats to come forth.
It seems strange that it is always Arsenal that are shafted by the officials – and predictably match after match. I can only think of one reason to explain this, I hope those who are in a position to investigate the PGMOL and their masters come to the same conclusion.
Yes wenger certainly did say that, but guess in his position he has to be very careful, there are enough knives out for him as it is. This is why I think Ivan Gazidis should be having a word behind closed doors. I am sure David Dein would, in fact he represented us to the level whereby Scudamore got to the point whereby he couldn’t stand him, wonder if we pay for that animosity to this day.? FIF is an interesting site, wish I knew more about the author and his methodology, but amazing how many similar names and conclusions he makes compared with Untold. He does not get everything right, and he does have a tendency to mention suspicious betting patterns after the event, but maybe he is as he suggests a paid consultant into this type of thing so cannot give away too much. Some of his claims if true….well there is no point to even following the game as a supporter. What intrigues me is he separates foreign betting scams from a longer lasting all powerful corruption much closer to home. And it seems like the foreign corruption is getting mentioned at its lowest levels, whereas what’s going on here is not
Yassin,
Here is an idea on how to handle the sperez: just scroll past his rants. It’s what I do. Always. There is no point reading his comments. It’s always the same bullshit.
Chamakhs on fire!
Today, Arsenal scored more goals against Man City that they’ve conceded all season at home. The officials ensured that we did not score more either by disallowing good goals or not calling a blatant penalty.
I’m not going to pretend to be upset by out loss today. I have already factored it into our points calculation for the season. I’m mad at the terrible officials for gifting city another +6 goal advantage over us.
I love the attitude that I am seeing on Untold. We stick by our team (no surprise here). Let the team get their rest and be ready for Chelsea in 9 days.
disappointed we lost we scored 3 goals thou go on palace beat the Russians!! ( yeah very likely ()
Didn’t watch the game, pressing family issues. But just stopped by briefly to gauge the mood and views on whether it was a deserving 6-3 win for city. And thanks Mandy, Bootoomee, bjtgooner, et al, I now know we robbed(of course I deliberately skipped comments from certain individuals). They’ll try everything, they will. Keep the faith.
Rest and regroup and forwards.
Yes, AFC couldve played better, but no one can suggest with credibility that the offcials were compentent or professional. We always knew what Arsenal are up against, there is some evidence.Two gas clubs and uncredible officials. We saw the PGMOBs calling card on the opening day. they made their statement of intent, hardly ambitious was it?
Difficult, probably impossible considering what we have seen in previous seasons and now proven with research, but the Arsenal have my support.
<hardly ambiguous
Biased our outright intentionally designed outcome. I felt like I was watching a movie. There’s no way someone makes offside mistakes like that, all against one club, not to mention the countless yellow cards not given for bad tackles. It’s so predictable, one could make a lot of money betting against Arsenal in matches like this.
Dave C
You are not the only to have come to that conclusion. Fortunately or unfortunately I am not a punter.
Just heard wengers aftermatch interview. Very critical of defending as a team, and did mention technical errors. Not sure he will be taking off flam in big games in near future from what he says. But he was also critical of officials, offside decisions, and falling for city’s diving
Bootoome,
I do that all the time, but after a loss, i get angry whrn hr shows, trying to do his stupid “i told u” thing.
Its the start of the game that defines our that defines the rest, we should start on fire, this medua fight is not acceptable, we need to stop it, that equalizer against Everton cost us more than just 2 pts, the players are starting to lose believe, look at united gamr, and now this game. Look at thr goals we are conceeding for god sake, its not their brillinace,its we do a lot of mistakes, why? We panic from first time we were down, and City is the team to punish us.
We went to this game with an afraid mentality that we are going to lose, so when we took 1-0 down, we lost.
And please somebody teach those assistants what offside is, we needed this little margin to het back, but they were there.
Am proud we lost 6-3, we scored 3 goals, took 6 cause we didnt givr up at all, those are players am proud to wear a shirt with their names on. Even if we never win thr league. Have some pride, other teams gave up, we could have gone with a 3-1 score but they wanted to not give up, they deserve credit for that, and that should be the base to destroy next chelsea game. We are the most classy, honest, best entertaining, and most brave team in thr world, its the world loss if we go down, its integrity loss, its honest and brave people lost, you all wamt back, you want thr league, then start believing you can win it, and push it into those players, they deserve it.
Atkinson set the scene in the first minute by giving MC a corner instead of a goal kick. Besides the big incidents, eg the disallowed goals, the not-given penalty, the MC penalty for a clear dive etc. it was clear that he was giving all the marginal decisions against us and failing to penalise MC on many occasions for fouls.
We did not play well enough to win, but we did not deserve to lose by this margin. The team should be praised for their efforts with the officials so obviously being biased. With a fair ref, we would have got a draw.
Just wait till Chelsea visit ManC. No shame in our loss today, although…
Please don’t entertain sperez.
Taking the liberty of reading between wengers lines…..we know what refs are up to and we know we will not get the run of the green with them……but don’t make it so frigging easy for these refs!
Tiredness is creeping.
I lost count the number of times dispossessed th ball in the mid field. For the likes of Toure Nasri and even the slow brazilian made a feast of us.
Disappointed yes but at best my expectation for this game was a draw.
The hat trick misses of Giroud surely referee is not to blame more his limit.
The answer lies how physically the players rrecover.Frankly speaking to me look like almost dead.
Take the loos on the chin and move on.
Who did advance Bayern or Arsenal?
Bayern sometimes get complacent. It was what happened that day. They beat Arsenal easily at the Emirates (courtesy of the tactically inept Wenger) and they didn’t bother that much at Allianz Arena. But even with all complacency, they attacked Arsenal in droves but the ball didn’t hit the net.
Borussia Dortmund won at the Emirates in a game that a fair result should be a draw. But as a team, they won the battle because they know how to play without the ball.
At their home, Dortmund were superior and deserved a better result but they were so wasteful and paid the price. Arsenal won because they were clinical with the couple of chances they created in the whole game. Being honest, once again, it was a great result but it didn’t reflect what the game was.
Anyway, Dortmund finished top of the group and have a very good chance to advance (need to avoid City), Arsenal will be out of the UCL for the 4th time in a row in the next phase because Wenger f*cked things up again.
So much for surviving the ‘group of death’ when in fact Wenger hasn’t been able to make Arsenal top in very easy groups with the likes of Schalke and Shakhtar and this cost Arsenal dearly.
People here always putting a positive spin that means nothing in reality. Just like what you did with your examples, Mandy.
I cant help feeling that a Sunday 17.00pm kick off would have given us a bit more time to gear up, after the Napoli game and perhaps we still might have lost-who knows?- but the silly billy scoreline wouldnt have perhaps occured, I think it would have been a game more like against Everton.
Im sure the lads will be ready for Chelsea, which be a firecracker of a game.
Anyway, COYG! Brickfields will be along at one point, I hope!
Amen.
Not surprised with Atkinson’s appalling bias to MC – can spot from a space shuttle. The guy is a member of Man City Club – check his entry on wiki. Shouldn’t the referees be banned from officiating the games of their member clubs? It’s just common sense. Good luck to ARS for next game.
“Wenger.We didn’t even try to defend”
Yes Mr Wenger the legs of your players are gone.
Oh the AAA, spouting bollox, we’re still on top. The Ref’s are against us, so are the English media and I’ll shove my love up the AAA arse!
We all knew it was going to be a tough game with Arsenal having a day less to rest and come back. Game was too free flowing and it’ll be one for our defense to forget (probably due to the loss of Koscielny early). Officiating as expected by Andrew’s article was completely bias like everyone else mentioned especially when it accounts for possibly 3 goals for us (incorrectly called Walcott and Giroud offside, and no hand ball call).
The handball decision I felt was most devastating as we would have tied 3-3 right after and that’s a new ballgame.
The only thing we can do now is make sure the refs know we are on to them at the Emirates in 9 days and reestablish our authority.
Also, everyone let’s just play the ignore game with Sperez. I mean who?
Sperez!….Sperez!…..Who the fuck is Sperez!!
Yes, let’s ignore it/him/smell.
GOYG!
Reaction to Zabaleta’s handball.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_photoafc/11369253684/
He’s a smug little fecker, isn’t he?
Keep the faith, Gooners.
Jerry, it would have been 3-3 and people would have been debating whether or not Zabaleta should have been sent off.
Man City were very good going forward, we were poor defending. We scored 3 and could/should have had more with better officiating. Unsure if Man City penalty at the end was valid but not too many complaints – at least Szcz didn’t get red-carded – only favour ref did us all day.
Proud we gave it a go, but Flamini substitution hurt us. I think Wenger will be more cautious in that regard in the future.
Ozil only player, other than centre backs/keeper, not to have a break over last couple of weeks.
At least we have 9 days to regroup – I think we need them.
Finally, this game reminds me of when we lost 2-6 to Man Utd in the 90-91 season (League Cup) – but still won the title with an outstanding defensive record.
City wew better, byt the score was really cruel.
Wilshere on the right was good, but on the left he is a liabity. He left Monreal fight agaist 2 players.
Flamini wasn’t near disciplined as Arteta. It would not hurt Arsenal, when other midfielders would cover his place. The rotating midfield was disfunctional.
Walcott scored 2 magnificient goals, but Giroud made a big mess of his chances. His chances were even better that Theo’s ones. Today Nick looked to be more gifted player than Olivier…
The 4th goal would never be conceded with Koscielny on the pitch. So many times this season we saw him in great position to move freely forward or backward, intercept that kind of cross and start a counter.
There were so many casual passed in front of our box. City have too good players not to punish us form that kind of invitation.
This season Arsenal defence was really good in preventing shooting from best positions. Today City has plenty of shots inside or just in front of 6 yard box.
Atkinson @Co. were simply shocking. So good they will not referee against Chelsea 🙂
It was always going to be a big ask to go to City on two day rest and get a result.
On another day , with another ref perhaps Bendtner header stands and Arsenal get a penalty for a hand ball and some other off-side calls go our way.
Having said that, Arsenal made way too many mistakes on their own and most of them lead to City goals.
Zonal marking while defending corners came back to hurt us again just like at OT.
Loose passes deep in our defensive third and middle of the park and less than clinical finishing ,all contributed to our defeat.
Another thing that’s been missing from Arsenal’s arsenal is a venomous in- swinger from corners and free kicks. Most top sides have players who can deliver that kind of ball from either side into the so called “corridor of uncertainty” ,which creates havoc amongst defenders. Such a ball like Rooney’s from the right and RVP from the left.
I wouldn’t be too critical of this Arsenal performance though for obvious reasons.
Yes, the PL gets a ton of money from TV rights but the people responsible for this scheduling gem are fucking idiots .
Still , I believe we have enough to win the league but not enough to contend on three fronts. Dropping from CL and the FA cup in the next round might be whats needed to go on to win the title.
Hurts like hell, but still OH TO BE A GOONER.
@ marcus
Well it thought it was. Arsenal supporters who are not afraid to see things in the right perspective. To support is to also realise and discuss the team’s weaknesses i would think. To only put blame on someone else is usually what children do, a grown up recognises the weaknesses and can be honest about them.
How can you not see that we did exactly just that what i said? We did not control and keep the ball like we usually can, thereby making manc look better than they really were.
But if this is a site that cannot and will not discuss the the mistakes and the weaknesses in the team, without denigrating the team, i guess not.
The fact that it does such good work did draw me here, but i have lately noticed a reluctance to “speak it as it is” even in the post some days ago from Nicky who put her own opinion on Giroud, and was put down like a child who should be seen and not heard.
One can bury one’s head in the sand and refuse to see and discuss how the team played, blame the ref(which is sometimes correct) and just shrug it off and say ah well, but you are then building up so much within you that will explode one day, trust me you are.
I remind you, to love is to sometimes have to take off the rose coloured glasses, and see the reality of the situation.
As far as I’m concerned, City were not better than us. They were vulnerable at the back, just as we were. Ref tilted the match. That was the difference.
And I can’t remember a time when I’ve seen such a concerted effort of bad calls between the linesmen and ref, especially Harry Lennard and Martin Atkinson.
Not answering anyone in particular.
In my humble opinion:
1. Atkinson was crap and cost us a draw as it should have been 5-5 (considering we would have scored the penalty we were robbed). 2 clear offisde goals ruled out. And every other 50-50 decision, even 60-40 decsions actually. Atkinson is a disgrace.
2. Giroud is exausted poor fella. We are lucky to get Poldi back soon. Imagine city rested more than half of their team! And we played wednesday! This is clearly fatigue in this result.
3. Gibbs is better than Nacho.
4. The goals we gave were somewhat cheap which is not typical for us. I blame fatigue and a bit Flamini who made a couple of bad costly decisions.
5. All in all a good match spoiled by a shit ref and influenced by our unfair fatigue.
6. KGB next week is more important and we will get enough rest.
7. Theo is BACK fuck yeah!
COYG!
I watched this on a very good Dutch stream and they showed that the two “offside” goals were very, very marginal. Could have been slightly off, but get given very often as the advantage is supposed to be with the attacker. The so called handball was a bit iffy to be honest. It hit the players knee and bounced onto his forearm. There were some very poor offside decisions against us in the first half though, and one was a quite dangerous attack involving Theo. They (the Dutch) didn’t make anything of it, but i thought there was an offside in the build up to MC second (I think) goal. Having said all this we did look knackered and if we’d managed to pass to team mates instead of opponents and not have been caught in possession as often as we did we might have got a something out of this match. I don’t subscribe to the bent or biased ref theme, but think there are some that are very incompetent. It’ll be very interesting on MOTD tonight, especially with Henry on the panel. There is no way the BBC will be able to gag him. It’s been a poor week overall hasn’t it.
Interesting analysis Tom. Agree would not get too negative over this, and have a very strong feeling revenge will be swift against what looks like a relatively weak Chelsea. But maybe not if we keep getting officials like that. I accept mistakes can be made but cannot accept it when such mistakes are one way
@Para
I agree, the team at times was disjointed. They have been disjointed several times recently.
Firstly I would say MC were actually playing some exceptional stuff. But it would be nice to know they would have beaten us without naff awful adjudicating. One linesman was knee-jerk offsiding us. Monreal was about 5 foot onside when the flag went up. That in itself raised a flag in my mind.
Secondly I would say there were weaknesses – Monreal is not rock solid like Gibbs. Somewhere in the midfield there was a lack of cohesion. By the same token we at times made their midfield look pretty amateurish.
Giroud is not really producing that much; he is a good striker, but if you swapped Giroud and Aguero in this match, we could have been 4-1 up at half-time.
To be honest Para, I don’t truly care about Arsenal; I enjoy watching them, but no more. I wasn’t born in Islington or anything like that.
I do however find the wholesale rigging of the EPL grotesque. I think it is terribly unethical, and it defrauds people who pay good money to see what they think is a genuine contest. There was a time I might have joined these ranks – but not under the present regime.
In any sport if you give one of two evenly matched competitors a 10% advantage, they’ll dime to a dozen win. That is what effectively happens in the EPL.
But from my perspective, it is not that I am in denial about AFC losing, like I said, I am not a bone and marrow supporter – I just have gravitated to AFC over the years. I just find the ongoing mismanagement and lack of transparency in the EPL shockingly bad.
Football is fixed makes many of the points I have been making over the years. Not least why are refs on a scintilla of a salary compared to the pups who play, and why is the PGMOL such a dark evasive organization. None of this is rational, and at worst looks like blatant corrupt malpractice.
I have suggested people start tweeting a mover and shaker like Piers Morgan, pointing him to this site (UA) and the ref reviews….
http://footballisfixed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/how-to-solve-match-fixing-once-and-for.html
Mandy
If you look at every game in which Arsenal have dropped points, this one is the least disappointing to me. City have quality all over the park and 6-3 score line when you consider the circumstances isn’t damaging to us at all.
Having played on two day’s rest , I can appreciate our players effort and accept their shortcomings on a day, especially when the Napoli pitch wasn’t to our player’s liking and sucked a lot of energy out of them
Posters who have read my posts before know that I don’t like making excuses ,be it for Wenger or the players but in this case I will.
We are still top of the league and have a little bit of time to rest up some tired legs before Chelsea game. I don’t see a reason for a panic.
Cheers
Thought that Giroud and Nacho got too much flack. In the 2nd half Nacho was fouled twice down the touch line before finally he was dispossessed and City nearly scored. Atkinson and his linesman Lennard must have seen at least one of these fouls, but they didn’t flag or whistle them.
Think about it. Two professional sets of eyes, two fouls, yet both the ref and linesman see neither foul. What are the chances of that?
Let’s see. If we give them each an 70% chance of making the right call (I believe this is generous), then the chances of making a bad call would be 30% (0.3). The chances of both of them missing the call would 0.3 x 0.3 = 0.09 or 9%. But that is just for one foul. Monreal was fouled twice in that sequence. So for them to miss 2 fouls, it would be 0.09 x 0.09 = 0.0081 or less than 1%.
And Giroud does all the donkey work. His glancing header that just missed wide was a great effort. It’s not easy to do; most can head it right at the keeper, but a glancing header angled at the far post is much harder to do and he didn’t miss by much.
I will admit that fumbled attempt of a cross was unfortunate, but remember, Giroud is left footed. He was trying to pass with his weaker foot and he accidentally took a mistouch with his other. It happens. In any case, Giroud was a threat up front.
Gianni,
I really consider to dig up an old empty spreadsheet and to tell my wife that I will take a few hours off and do a ref review like we did in the past…
I’m up for it if you are, Walter.