By Walter Broeckx
The starting line up had a few changes compared to the West Ham United match. Vermaelen had to be withdrawn as he got a hamstring injury shortly before the match. Monreal came in at left back. And as he has been criticized a lot lately I just want to say he had a very decent match. A new face was to be seen as Özil also started his first match after his injury and would last 60 minutes and then was taken off. I hope he was OK.
And also Ramsey started this match after having been on the bench last Tuesday against West Ham.
If you would have asked me how this match would end after 20 minutes I would have taken a 0-1 win for the Arsenal. I must admit that the way Hull came at us in the opening half hour was both impressive and fearsome. Fearsome for one of our players being kicked to pieces.
Ok the ref did blow for the studs up kick to the head of Arteta but where was the card for this? This was utterly reckless and dangerous and could have resulted in a nasty head wound. And those are the criteria to determine a red or a yellow. A red for me. He was in front of Arteta so he knew where his head was but still decided to go studs up to the face of Arteta.
The match then suddenly was interrupted as half of the advertising boards decided to make a walk on the field. The wind just blew them on the field and almost took the linesman with them. Did anyone over there ever think about securing those boards with some hooks? Seriously this could have been dangerous and could have caused injuries. Red card for the Hull people responsible for this mess.
On the football side of things Hull tried to press us all over the field. And as a result we didn’t get our passing game together in the opening stages of the game. Our defence was under pressure and Szczesny surely was earning his money in this match with a few much needed interventions.
Back to the football. Hull pressed high, Arsenal struggled. But the ref then missed a penalty on Özil. He was taken down from behind but the ref let it go. I bet the media will make a real fuss about it. Yeah, sure they will.
But the longer the match went on I felt that Hull wouldn’t be able to keep up the high pressing game. It can be very effective but all players have to fully commit themselves and this is something that is difficult to maintain for a whole match let alone half.
Gradually Arsenal players got a little bit more room to manoeuvre and Ramsey got the ball in midfield, played it to Özil on the right flank who turned inside and gave the ball to Cazorla. Santi controlled saw the onrushing Ramsey and played it nicely in his path. And Aaron did what he did at the start of the season: just pass it in the far corner. 0-1 to the Arsenal.
Hull didn’t give up and we were lucky when a shot from Livermore ended up against the post. A lucky escape but as I wrote a few weeks ago in an article: you need some luck.
But after that you could feel that Hull was giving more room. When Jelavic went down in a challenge with Arteta the ref let the match continue. Arsenal attacked and Giroud came in from the right hand side, played a ball to Ramsey who controlled it with his chest and the on storming Podolski showed his goal scoring ability once again. Before the Hull keeper realised what happened the ball was in the net. 0-2 just before half time. The combination Giroud-Ramsey-Podolski was also the combination for the 3rd goal against West Ham.
After the interval Hull at first tried to give the impression that they would carry on pressing us. But they ran out of steam. A nice Spanish combination on the left between Monreal and Cazorla ended with a low cross to Ramsey who tried to score his second goal. The keeper could stop the effort but the ball fell to Podolski who finished it off in his own cool style. 0-3 and match over.
Hull were demoralised after that and tried to kick a few of our players off the field with the FA cup final on their mind I think. Giroud was unlucky when he pressed the goal keeper, won the ball but the bouncing ball and the difficult angle and the cross bar prevented him from scoring a 4th goal for Arsenal.
Arsenal dictated the proceedings on the field and Hull ran after a ball they could hardly touch. Oxlade–Chamberlain came on, Flamini came on, Sanogo came on. Özil, Giroud and Podolski went off. And we just played the ball around and around and around. I think if we would have released the handbrake completely we could have trashed them but I am happy we didn’t. A hurt team can try to revenge themselves in the cup final. Now it is just a ‘casual’ loss. No need to get worked up about.
So a nice win after 90 minutes. With Ramsey back we have found the ability to absorb pressure and then suddenly go forward and speed things up and score. Something we have been missing for such a long period. Just try to imagine to add Theo to this….
Oh well, a good win. A determined performance. Poldi using his experience and his goal scoring instinct. By the way do you know we missed Poldi for almost the whole first half of the season also. He came back to form in the last weeks. Just in time for the run in.
Details of Untold’s books, and our work on the Arsenal Anniversary series (which appears each day on the home page) are available here.
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal
- Books on Arsenal at a discount
– See more at: http://www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/#sthash.wCCM3Bvk.dpuf
The Books
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal
- Books on Arsenal at a discount
– See more at: http://www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/#sthash.wCCM3Bvk.dpuf
Beautiful game, the difference Ramsey and Ozil make, well done.
Oh yes Walter… Put Theo in the mix and… Bang! I believe this team needs Rambo or Theo playing at any time. It is a “bonus” for both to be playing at the same time 🙂
Good match. Felt Hull wanted to get an early goal and then frustrate us by parking the bus. At the same time they were also not worried about being too heavy handed after the ref let off their first terrible challenge go unpunished. But nice to see the usual suspects back doing what they do best. If only there hadn’t been all those awful injuries…
Two penalties not given for us today. I do wonder what it takes to get one
@ Walter – How sure that hoardings were not ‘tampered’ with ,so as to injure our players before the FA Cup ?
Billy had mentioned anchovies in another thread and flares were brought in by Everton fans before.
A conspiracy I tell you !
@Mahdain
“I do wonder what it takes to get one”
A Liverpool shirt would help! 🙂
Goodnight guys . Am about to watch the last 30 minutes of the Everton vs ManUre game and I really ,really don’t know who to cheer for !
If Everton drop points ,it’ll help our cause , on the other hand ManUre getting well and truly whopped would make me happy too !
Its like that joke where your mother -in -law is going off a cliff in your brand new Ferrari !
@Brickfields Gunners
I actually like my Mother-in-law, and certainly do not, and never will, own a Ferrari, so that, thankfully, is a dilemma that I shall never have to face.
On the other hand, the Everton/United quandary is one I too have been wrestling with without any luck !
I’ve given up a life time of disliking Man U to support them against Everton, but it has done no good. Everton 2 Man U 0.
No anchovies on the Moyes bench.
One thing we also need to do is to close down players too when they are making it difficult for us. We could have ended up a goal down(post saved it) and have to chase the game.
All in all a good performance though. Glad Ram and Ox and both back.
Someone mentioned that pool will be the new manu, by hook and crook manu will be back next season, i’m sure the “nation” wants it’s “flagship” team back.
Everyone beating manu except us, hope this changes next season, still waiting for my revenge, that 8-2 needs to be corrected.
onward gunners.
Great win. Good seeing the injured players return & have such an instant influence.
Oh & Mourinho seems to have been reading the Untold ref reports!
@Para
I don’t know about “I’m sure the ‘Nation’ wants it’s ‘Flagship’ team back”
But I am sure the ‘Premier League’, the ‘PGMOL’ and most importantly, the ‘Media’ do !!
Wonder if Rooney will be accused of ” stealing a living” just how much does he earn these days? And they call our players flops.
Utd in real trouble, need to replace underperforming players on huge contracts. Not saying they cannot do that, they certainly can afford to but some big write offs will be needed, especially if a new man comes in.
Looks like another record points total looms for the fifth placed team…..possible fifth on 76-77 points, think the EPL has been won on 77 points?
Telegraph: Only referee mistake, is missing foul on Jelavic.
> 76 … Great run from the Ox, who is hacked at twice in the area, but does not go down because he is less of a cheat than most,
Sky: 2 borderline calls (Ozil and Jelavic), but second was more important.
Guardian: nothing unusual.
Vavel: nothing unusual.
Daily Mail: only problem is Jelavic foul. They describe fouls during play, don’t recognize that they are fouls.
Aussie 442: nothing unusual.
Independent: Jelavic borderline only problem. Arsenal fans sing Sherwood’s name.
Sport 24: Jelavic borderline.
Does the Telegraph think all players are cheats?
Arteta didn’t find his tooth
With the 2-0 Everton produced, the highest ManU can finish now is 5th, but it is more likely they will finish where they are (7th). We are still fighting with Everton for 4th, Spurs are almost out of this fight.
Most of the press was talking about Hull more or less guaranteed European football next season. If Arsenal finish 4th, and win the FA Cup, Hull get’s Europa league.
Liverpool and Man U supporters, I hate them both. I ‘ll never forget growing up in the late eighties/nineties, how the Liverpool fans believed his/her self importance, and any other fan was just fool. So all these people stating their preferences for Liverpool just don’t remember or choose to forget that sickening attitude.
An excellent win and a good match report. Hull looked a bit like Stoke for the first 20 mins or so – they looked like they were trying to damage or intimidate us before the cup final.
We responded well and gradually took control of the game – very good goals from Ramsey and Podolski – what a class finisher Podolski is.
A wonder will Riley be sent a bear’s head following Mourinho’s comments?
Ramsey. How much we had missed him. Two brilliant assists with two simple touches this week.
Hull City should have celebrated our victory. If we are fourth at the end and win FA Cup, they’ll qualify for Europa League.
West Brom and ManCity tomorrow. A single point doesn’t really help West Brom much. Can we get another upset?
Mandy, I don’t see much about Wayne stealing a living, but he is apparently planning a healthy Europa run next season. Seeing as it will be trivial for ManU to get past Spurs, especially based on today’s display. Daily Mail gave Wayne a 5.
Josif
My nephew said the same thing.
Para,
When Hull hit the post we were 0-1 up already.
@bjtgooner
According to Jamie Carragher we was just being ‘bullied’ which is SKY sports standard term for when Arsenal are being kicked in the air.
Also just seen SKY’s ‘highlights’ of the Norwich/Liverpool game. Funny, not a mention of that diving cheating little shit Suarez going down like he’s been shot before rising like Lazarus !!
@Gord – Nick Miller from Guardian hasn’t replied nor published neither of my three e-mails. His MBM was absolute disgrace.
@jambug
Thanks for that – I don’t listen to Carragher if I possibly avoid his whinging voice.
As I noted on a previous thread, Suarez should receive a retrospective ban for his academy award simulation.
Speaking of retrospective bans: – Huddlestone (I think) for his martial arts kick on Arteta’s head & Ramires for his deliberate back elbow.
@bjtgooner – this season Arsenal have had five situations that I recall from top of my head in which opponents should have been either sent off or got a retrospective ban.
1.Ron Vlaar – a second bookable offence at the opening day of the season (Cunthony Taylor),
2.Yaya Toure – a dangerous tackle on Olivier Giroud (Martin Atkinson),
3.Obi Mikel – a dangerous tackle on Mikel Arteta (our friend Mikey),
4.Charlie Adam – a dangerous stump on Olivier Giroud (he is the only one that got a retrospective ban) and
5.Ross Barkley – a shove on Mikel Arteta (Martin Atkinson again).
Don’t have high hopes on Huddlestone’s ban.
bjtgooner
Alas, Suarez’s blatant play acting will be buried. I’ll be interested to see if MOTD show it, and more importantly if they do, whether they make the kind of fuss over it they surely would had it been an Arsenal player.
Regarding Huddleston, nothing will happen because the ref gave us a free kick, therefore nothing can be done because by definition he must of seen it. I believe retrospective action can only be taken if he didn’t see it.
I do think Ramires is in for a little rest though.
bjtgooner.
RE: Suarez incident.
SKY Sports News has been showing highlights, and talking about the Liverpool Norwich game for coming up for 10 Minutes now. Not seen hyde nor hair of it, so as expected.
And people, including Arsenal fans, don’t believe the media, on all platforms, have agendas !!
Total and utter disgrace !!!!
bjtgooner
That pilot scheme of charging players retrospectively only gets invoked if its players from certain teams(esp one from north London)
I have just about lost faith in most sports that require humans as refs. This morning I happened to watch a boxing contest involving Bernard Hopkins with a colleague(not a sport I’m particularly fond of I must admit), which was so one sided but one of the refs still managed to score it in favour of the other boxer. It was so bad a decision that many commented the judge should just turn in his licence and quit. But it just goes to show the kind of world we live in; hard-working sportspersons getting robbed by referees, unless they deliver a decisive result such as a knock-out which is beyond question, then their victory is always in danger of getting stolen from them. Sport is not clean any more, and only sports such as Tennis, Athletics, etc, where a ref has minimal impact are the only ones seeing results which are less-influenced by a corrupt official. They do have issues of their own though, such as doping, etc., but there are less problems there than the cheating of the public daily like we see in areas such as football.
Thanks guys.
If the media continue to cover up for Suarez it would lend considerable persuasion to the theory of the PGMOL, media & “a.n. other” being involved in an fix.
I only watch SKY when our matches are on – the pre match and post match analysis/propaganda is usually so blatantly anti-Arsenal it does not interest me – just think of all the ads I happily miss! But, I may try and catch Gallagher if he is on tomorrow – just to see what excuses he comes up with.
I believe wenger has or will sign on but is it possible he is dalaying announcement….perhaps to motivate, or even protect his team? A well funded wenger with this team, reinforcements, maybe improvements on the injury front, a top four place and a trophy to his name may be a very dangerous animal to those with an agenda next season. If he announced a new deal now, it is possible there would be even further attempts to derail him and the team, but while nothing is announced, wonder if the powers that be are just hoping he just goes away quietly this summer, and they can promote their flagship teams. Wenger is a purist, that some believe to be a bit naive, but surely he must see there is an agenda, and for him, it is not a positive agenda. Rarely have I seen as much selective reporting as this season
AL
I think you read me earlier today when I suggested that we would be due pay back, big style, till the end of season, for having the audacity to get away with a penalty shout against West Ham last week.
I said I would be honest in my appraisal of all the Referees who are in charge of our matches.
Well this is what I thought today.
He missed a blatant card, possibly Red, early on, for a very high, dangerous foot on Arteta.
He missed 2 clear penalties for us. One ironically on the Ox that had similarities to the Sagna one, whereby he could of gone down, but didn’t, and would almost certainly have got the decision had he done so. No media fuss over that one though.
He did let some pretty rough treatment of us go early on, but nothing too bad so as to be really ‘dangerous’. Saying that Arteta might disagree!
But his saving grace was he didn’t give them any ridiculous decisions. Admittedly we didn’t really give him any chances to do so, but still.
He also let Artetas 50/50 tackle go that led to our goal. A real ‘homer’ would of given that.
So I suppose taken in the context of what I expected it could of been worse.
So an Okay performance.
A new contract for Wenger might be announced after the final.
@Mandy
Good theory about Wenger delaying signing his new contract, there could be something in it.
I think that Hull get into Europa league if Arsenal come 4th whether they win or lose. If they win they get into the Europa league, but if they lose, then the place goes to the winner. But that would be Arsenal, who by coming 4th go into the Champions League. So the runners-up go into the Europa – Hull.
So, in short, if Arsenal come 4th, Hull get the Europa spot, win or lose.
@Tony Attwood – exactly. That’s why Hull (who are yet to play against Everton as well) should be happy that we won today (just kidding – nobody should celebrate defeats) and give their best to beat Everton if we need that. Jelavić (which picture in an Arsenal JVC-shirt was published in Sportske Novosti just before EURO 2012) will have a special motive to prove himself against Everton. And he won’t play against us in the cup final.
Maureen praising Mike Riley and Mike Dean, he may well have a point.
Cheer up people! We’ve just won a football match by playing reasonably well, and all I see here is negativity. You moan when we lose & moan when we win.
@Jax
🙂
Think on balance,you are prob right about the timing of Wengers contract Josif…..just hope the final,goes,well then!
@Jax
I know Brickfields has the humour position, but how about this headline from Times of India?
Unscheduled board meeting halts Hull-Arsenal
Yes, it was a nice win.
Wenger will sign before the end of the season. In fact I think he might have already signed but the club has not announced it so as to keep the crud thinking.
The PGMOL will not be touched yet but soon there will be an expose on one of the TV channels and the extent of the crookedness will shock the sporting world. It’s only a matter of time.
Everyone likes a a good rating programme that sells advertising, and what better than an investigative on corruption in sport.
@Gord
I thought you were making it up, so Googled it first and yes it’s a real headline & very funny. More like that please & less of the bloke saying Liverpool & Man U supporters are horrible. I can’t believe a grown person said that.
@Menace
I really hope you are right, but alas I feel there are too many vested interests in maintaining the current veil of secrecy.
Has anyone checked out http://footballisfixed.blogspot.co.uk/?
Mr Moss mentioned.
jambug 7:46
Yes, I read your comments re payback and they were spot on. You would think with all that went on today we have paid our dues but I doubt it. At least if the media were go on for the next 7 days banging on about the outrageous decision not to give the Ox a blatant penalty then things would cancel each other out, but no chance as the Ox plays for arsenakl. For those who wait for MotD I doubt this will be even be shown.
jax
At least we cannot be accused of inconsistency; even if we won 10-0 we would still be here saying the same as long as the ref doesn’t do their job properly. Unlike some who disappear when the team does well and only surface when things are not going so well 🙂
Speaking of those vermin AL, where are the jackals who come snarling outof their fetid burrows when AFC drop points? Suddenly that is no longer the flavour of the month! What a shame!
Dan, that is a very curious blog you’ve pointed to. Very odd indeed
Tony.
You got me curious too, so I took a look.
That West Ham 5 nil game made for very interesting reading.
“this season Arsenal have had five situations that I recall from top of my head in which opponents should have been either sent off or got a retrospective ban.
1.Ron Vlaar – a second bookable offence at the opening day of the season (Cunthony Taylor),
2.Yaya Toure – a dangerous tackle on Olivier Giroud (Martin Atkinson),
3.Obi Mikel – a dangerous tackle on Mikel Arteta (our friend Mikey),
4.Charlie Adam – a dangerous stump on Olivier Giroud (he is the only one that got a retrospective ban) and
5.Ross Barkley – a shove on Mikel Arteta (Martin Atkinson again).“
To add to the above;
6. The stamp by bentlab on a prone Monreal that narrowly missed his wrist and head.
Up to this day thinking of that incident gives me the chills, yet it was never mentioned again,never.
Think that is about four pens denied in four or five days? Remember, it all evens itself out
Jonathan Pearce (bless him) who did the MOTD commentary was supportive of our two “penalties” and also thought that Jelovic dived when Arteta tackled him before the second goal. Keown backed him on the Arteta tackle, so somebody at the Beeb likes us.
jax
Blimey. Wonders never cease. Watching later.
Did they show the Suarez dive and if so how the f**k did they defend that…….or didn’t they?
jambug
No Suarez dive shown or mentioned. So they got out of it quite nicely.
@Mandy
Yes, everything evens out. Next year, Arsenal is going to get 10 penalties per game. 🙂
@Jax
I don’t think the Beeb loves anyone. They were brought up as the socialist child, and now they have to compete with capitalists. I think Monkey-See/Monkey-Do is how they plan things (everybody else has a zillion muppets supporting corporate outlooks on sports, we will too).
I don’t know that Arteta could have used his broken tooth if they had found it after the game (was anyone looking at half time?). I don’t like the various slants in the news recently about Arteta not liking his time at Arsenal. As near as I can tell, is that he hasn’t liked it as much as thought he would have. But maybe he thought all the stories about Arsenal getting kicked more were just fabricated (like most of the sports news, and a good fraction of the ordinary news)? But I hope that at the end of the day, Arteta feels that moving to Arsenal was the best thing to do, and that he has enjoyed being involved with Arsenal as a club.
It’s too darned bad Suarez wasn’t on MH370. Maybe his abundance of BS would have been detectable to the drone submarine (Bluefin21). Suarez really needs a 200 game ban for simulation.
Oh, Bluefin21 runs Linux as an OS.
Must be referring to us
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/apr/19/police-called-drug-scandal-major-club
The media, in their zealous support of all things Liverpool have taken last summers remarks about what they are smoking at the Emirates literally!
What little I can find, is that the drug in question is cocaine. That the sports whorenalists have a problem with truth, is the following quote of any use?
> Police were apparently called when a leading executive noticed white powder on a colleague’s clothing when he sat down at a home game. The incident where one or more board members were allegedly caught snorting cocaine off a boardroom table occurred at an away match.
I don’t see mention of club or league so far.
Prob is coke Gord, I jest in the above post, not us, but I can make about three educated guesses, two or three in the prem , one the league below, not that I would put such potential libel on here of course.
But in reality, I have no clue to who this refers to…..will be interesting if we hear more though….guess that would depend on how high the profile of,the club and what sort of friends they have…..assuming it is true of course
@jaz
In that case, is that not media bias in it’s purist and most scandalous form.
If anyone is in any doubt as to what a massive issue it would of been had it been an Arsenal player then they really are deluded.
And also if anyone was in any doubt as to there being a media agenda to help push Liverpool over the line, then surely this will dispel it.
@Mandy
I have no clue.
Sorry for getting confused.
@Walter
Sorry, i meant the first shot from hull, they had it too easy to get through our defence, and then for the rebounded shot, but these are the things that haunt us against the teams like manc, they tend to score from their chances.
Anyway, the lads are getting their fire back and if Hull wants Europa league, i wonder if they will “put up a brave fight”, then lose FA cup, but we cannot take any chances.
We have to be careful about the refs decisions now. As we all notice, the refs are not as horrible to us now like before, maybe because of Untold’s issue highlighting?
AND, our players have now learned to incorporate the things other players do too. Look closely and we will see that Arsenal is much tougher now, and do make sure the other team knows that if they kick us, they will get kicked back. I love it when the players protect one another.
Our tough players who protect and revenge other players are, Kos, Arteta and Flamini, and we need one or two more. Kalli(strom) looks to be tough too, and from what i see of him, i hope he does or can make the switch to Arsenal. All in all i am looking forward to Arsenal next season, and the long wait before it starts is going to be so boring without Arsenal.
Concerning drugs, i remember an incident about 10-15 years ago. You will not have heard of it, i only heard of it because a pal was a bodyguard for one of the manchester teams’ players, and a young player(no name for obvious reasons) was caught with coks in a night club. The story was squashed before it even reached the media, and the manager took him under his wing, got him cleaned up, (he missed lots of playing time(a season) due to rehab before he became a dinosaur for that club).
Wow i just like this site,nice write up @walter.
@Al@bjtgunner @mandy dodd, have you seen sparez around it has been a while seen i last saw him.
Is there a name for the day United can’t reach us in the standings, similarly to St. Totteringham Day?
Ramsey has been shortlisted for young player of the year. He deserves it, if not the player of the year. Serious contender for the ARSENAL player of the year.
Even his miscontrol ends up as an assist.
BUT one thing i am so happy about is Jelavics dive. It resulted in ARSENAL goal. Aptly punished…..
Ok, sorry for seeming stupid, I realize most of the times it was called Winning the League, and it’s is a very rare thing to have them 13 points down with 4 matches to go. Still worth a little wicked celebration.
For the first 30 mins…I thought they played with the intention of taking out a couple of our players. They were really nasty…glad that no one came off with serious injuries…
The worst part is its Mr Nice Guy, Steve Bruce’s team. I have huge respect towards Bruce’s honesty, determination an the way he wants to play football. A huge respected player during his playing days. Unfortunately, he have two on loan players in the middle of the park. (One Totty scum). How the match ended with no red card is beyond my belief. Perhaps the players got inspired the wrong way. Desperate time for relegation battlers. Thank god, not the Hull Tigers. Our players would have end up in stretchers.
So did the ref deal with the assault on Arteta? Wonder if this isn’t a perfect candidate for retrospective punishment, that cant be called a collision (noone collides with someone’s elbow). Will be outrageous if they don’t punish the offender; two potential GBH cases on a football pitch agarinst our players(the other being Rosicky nose smash) and no punishment. And what was the guy that broke Artetas tooth doing rolling around on the ground? Where was he hurt? And to think Niall Quinn called it a perfect challenge, just makes my blood boil.
Regarding the drug thing, well, let’s just say I’ve been aware of a certain player for some time.
Seems the issues accessing the site are back, site running very slow and getting an error message saying database connection error.
I’m also having trouble getting the page to load, but here now.
Just wanted to say how well Arteta and Ramsey seem to play together. It is great to have the powering Rambo back and Arty, in the last 2 games has played more like his competitive best. Tooth ouch!! We have 2 very committed players here.
A couple of points – how the hell did Huddleston not even get a yellow, never mind a red? No idea. Have Liverpool got the title due to excessive penalties? Gerard has scored 10 or more, how many have been soft? With their slippery footed strikers – plenty I guess. It was a good job that that we weren’t relying on Moss for the Ox and Ozil incidents yesterday. Weren’t there 2 good penalty shouts for Theo in games we drew against Chelski & Manure? 4 further points would be very handy now. I cannot believe that Suarez is favourite for Player of the Year, ugh. Knighthood for Stevie G next?
Just watched Gallagher on Sky.
The Suarez dive and almost instant recovery classified as an amusing incident rather than unsporting behaviour.
The Norwich penalty shout discussed but Gallagher weaseled out of giving a direct comment – that is the type of thing the referees will be discussing over the summer. (Technology anyone?)
The Norwich free kick shout at the edge of the box, late in the game, (looked a deliberate take down and possible yellow), was described by Gallagher as “the Liverpool player slipped and slid into him, missed by the referee”.
“this season Arsenal have had five situations that I recall from top of my head in which opponents should have been either sent off or got a retrospective ban.
1.Ron Vlaar – a second bookable offence at the opening day of the season (Cunthony Taylor),
2.Yaya Toure – a dangerous tackle on Olivier Giroud (Martin Atkinson),
3.Obi Mikel – a dangerous tackle on Mikel Arteta (our friend Mikey),
4.Charlie Adam – a dangerous stump on Olivier Giroud (he is the only one that got a retrospective ban) and
5.Ross Barkley – a shove on Mikel Arteta (Martin Atkinson again).“
Notice how Arteta and Giroud are the repeated victims, and yesterday again Arteta got kicked in the head (a foul only, no card) and lost a tooth (no foul given). Coincidence? And yet both Giroud and Arteta are often whistled for the tiniest little touches. Is there a league-wide policy of a) allowing Arteta and Giroud to be assaulted and b) preventing them from defending themselves with similar physicality?
@El Gringo
I would suggest Wilshere gets even harsher treatment, with little, if any protection from Referees.
jambug, you’re definitely right regarding the niggly late kicks to the ankles. I think the Men in Black have the “except Wilshire” clause with ankle-kicks. I was thinking more about the assault sort of fouls that Arteta and Giroud suffer.
I think to the list above we can add the nose-breaking challenge on Rosicky, though I don’t recall who was responsible.
Final comment on Gallagher – he considered there was not enough contact by Arteta on Jelavic to justify a foul – our subsequent goal untarnished.
Strangely SKY did not discuss the martial arts kick by Huddlestone on Arteta’s head. I wonder why?
Bjt,
That incident wasn’t even shown on MOTD last night. The commentator said that both the Ozil and Ox incidents were penalties but no post match comments on either. All typical MOTD nonsense.
I think most teams at some extent figured out how to counter Arsenal’s unstoppable rotational midfield. Take out the nearest link, Arteta and Giroud. The protector and the destroyer out, the creators ineffective. I guess Sanogo and Flamini provides a different option for them now since most of the first team players are back and ready to go for it. We cannot understate the amount of fouls and kicks Arteta and Giroud got this season. No wonder one has lost the love for football and one has love, ohhh welll…
Martin Keown on MOTD 2
Talking about the Cup Final. Specifically regarding Hull having to play without Long and Jelovic.
“The game will be somewhat different…..,the same result, but somewhat different”
Which led to both Danny Murphy and Mark Chapman accusing him of being bias !!
Look, I know it was said laughing but still. Considering the copious amounts of Liverpool bias we’ve had to endure over the years from Hanson and Lawrenson, to name but 2, without a word of reproach, I just found it a bit of piss take really.
I know I’m being a bit ‘touchy’ but this BBC mob really do get my goat !!!
Thanks Andrew, I missed MOTD – usually do!
I think the point about Giroud and Arteta being targeted is correct. Giroud receives most of our goal kicks & consequently is double marked and fouled as the opposition try to gain possession. Arteta is important to the way we build from the back, so again he is targeted as the opposition try to stop us building.
But – the opposition teams also try to double mark Ramsey, Ozil, Walcott etc – when they are all playing the opposition cannot mark let alone double mark all of them.
@El Gringo (others?)
Your list of stamping incidents.
Today at the BBC, is note of an incident in Africa (Gabon), where the goaltender is accidentally stepped on (his head). He died on the way to hospital.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27101201
Speaking of Wilshere, I think he got fouled 8 times against Aston Villa on the opening day of the season and, if I recall correctly, nobody got a single yellow card for any of those. Referee: Anthony Taylor, Tony Pulis of refereeing.
Bjtgooner 10:24
Interesting analysis of the Gallagher appearance on Sky. Just goes on to show the collusion between refs and the media; him giving such lame answers which any journo worth his salt would’ve most certainly picked on and Sky for not probing further and allowing Gallagher to brush off some incidents as amusing,etc.
@Josif
I’ve put this little scenario on Untold before. It involves a conversation between Hartson and the commentator during that very match. It went something like this:
C: That’s a poor challenge.
H: Yeah, that’s not good.
C: The fans didn’t like that one.
H: But what do Arsenal expect they’re not just going to let them play.
C: That’s right, but he’s going to get booked for that one.
H: No, I don’t think he is.
C: No he isn’t. Must be because that’s HIS first one.
Amid girlie giggles !!
H: Yes there being very clever, they’re taking it in turns.
ROTATIONAL FOULING !!
LAUGHING ABOUT IT !!
That is NOT word for word but it gives a very good idea as to WHAT was being said and the TONE it was being said in.
I couldn’t believe what I was listening to. Well that’s not entirely true. It was Arsenal being kicked of the park after all !!!
Always great fun that !!
Pressing high up the pitch is called a full court press in basketball.
It is recognised as a play which brings a certain number of fouls against the pressing team,so this is not used for the duration of the game. Plus the fact that the players are physically unable to do it.
In football there are only two ways to ‘break the press’.
Either you pass through it, as Barca try to do.
Or you relieve the pressure by ‘booting’ the ball behind the pressing team, which is highly effective, and much less of a risk.It then takes the opposition time and passes to return the ball to your end, which does become both tiring and frustrating if you keep ‘booting’ it behind them.
Not pretty, but highly effective, and will give a 0-0 half-time score.
Second half ………..change tactics and play through tired pressing players.
Not rocket science.
Pressing high up the pitch is called a full court press in basketball.
It is recognised as a play which brings a certain number of fouls against the pressing team,so this is not used for the duration of the game. Plus the fact that the players are physically unable to do it.
In football there are only two ways to ‘break the press’.
Either you pass through it, as Barca try to do.
Or you relieve the pressure by ‘booting’ the ball behind the pressing team, which is highly effective, and much less of a risk.It then takes the opposition time and passes to return the ball to your end, which does become both tiring and frustrating if you keep ‘booting’ it behind them.
Not pretty, but highly effective, and will give a 0-0 half-time score.
Second half ………..change tactics and play through tired pressing players.
Not rocket science.
Pressing high up the pitch is called a full court press in basketball.
It is recognised as a play which brings a certain number of fouls against the pressing team,so this is not used for the duration of the game. Plus the fact that the players are physically unable to do it.
In football there are only two ways to ‘break the press’.
Either you pass through it, as Barca try to do.
Or you relieve the pressure by ‘booting’ the ball behind the pressing team, which is highly effective, and much less of a risk.It then takes the opposition time and passes to return the ball to your end, which does become both tiring and frustrating if you keep ‘booting’ it behind them.
Not pretty, but highly effective, and will give a 0-0 half-time score.
Second half ………..change tactics and play through tired pressing players.
Not rocket science.
@El Gringo – It was Agbonlahor who broke Rosicky’s nose with an extended forearm as they both went up for an aerial challenge.
http://imgur.com/9lDFOkW