By Tony Attwood
Two things I learned from last night’s game. One is that I can never guess what Walter is going to say in a review and the other is that Arsene Wenger is changing his style of commenting on his players.
I thought Ozil’s goal was ok. Now I am not a referee, but even with the replays I could not see exactly if the ball hit the shoulder or the arm, and if it was the latter whether it was a deliberate arm ball. My understanding of the rules (something that is regularly corrected and updated by Walter both on the site and when we talk with each other) was that if the referee simply couldn’t tell, he gave the benefit to the attacking team.
But maybe that is just a bit of football mythology, and I am sure I will be corrected shortly.
My own view, which of course is worth no more than anyone else’s, was that had that goal stood, Arsenal would have taken heart and would have been able then to re-focus on the game plan. As it was instead of being a great positive moment it was an utter deflation. Another “oh he is that sort of ref” moment.
Two more incidents followed. One was the Campbell booking and the other the foul on Alexis on the half hour which made me feel deflated. Goodness knows what it did to the players.
It was just about this time that the Sprout commentator told us that “Bayern Munich don’t get enough credit” for the way they play. The words “planet” and “another” (although not in that order) came to mind vis a vis where the man is living. But then his co-commentator spoke on a monotone. I think I’d talk more rubbish than normal if I had that bleating in my ear for 90 minutes.
As for Mr W, there was a time when he followed the old George Graham approach of never ever being critical of his own team. He dropped that big time after the league cup match and he was at it again last night.
“You have to give credit to Bayern for their quality,” Mr Wenger said. “On top of that, we made things quite easy for them with our defensive performance. We were extremely poor defensively. We were not at the races. When we went forward, we had chances but with a defensive performance like that, you go nowhere.”
I think Gabriel Paulista is a superbly talented player but not yet the finished article – like Koscielny at the start, and I don’t think he deserves that criticism in general. I also thought Mathieu Debuchy was a very good purchase before his injuries. But what a life he’s had – bad injury, come back get thumped across the barrier, out for ages, come back and find the kid who replaced you turns out to be one of the best backs in England. I hope he has a good psychologist.
The Guardian asks today, “Could Wenger have started Mathieu Flamini instead of Campbell?” Hindsight is wonderful, but that too could have misfired as much as it could have worked. But the Guardian goes totally off the rails with the next point for they say, “Here, then, was a performance that furthered the argument that Wenger erred by not signing a tough midfielder in the Morgan Schneiderlin mould in the summer…”
The image is that had we done so we would have had him ready for last night. But would he have come to Arsenal if the manager had said, “actually I am playing Coquelin, who has better ratings than you, and Santi Caz next to him, but you might get a game in November.” I think not.
Of course one could argue that the whole system could have changed and maybe it would have worked, but what we do know is that in the Premier League our system does work, and we are equal top on points. Would we really say that a maybe is better than a “this really happened”? Well, not me.
So what now?
I don’t really want the distraction of the Champs League. I can’t see we are going to win it against Real Mad and Audi’s works team.
The point with both clubs is that they have the enormous advantage of playing in utterly balanced leagues. In Spain only three teams compete for top spot, and one of those only pops up every four or five years to have a go. In the much heralded German league, the table shows you what is wrong.
| # | Team | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bayern Munich | 11 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 33 | 4 | 29 | 31 |
| 2 | Borussia Dortmund | 11 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 32 | 13 | 19 | 26 |
| 3 | Wolfsburg | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 17 | 13 | 4 | 21 |
| 4 | Schalke | 11 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 14 | 13 | 1 | 20 |
| 5 | Borussia Monchengladbach | 11 | 6 | 0 | 5 | 23 | 18 | 5 | 18 |
| 6 | Hertha Berlin | 11 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 14 | 14 | 0 | 17 |
| 7 | Bayer Leverkusen | 11 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 13 | 14 | -1 | 17 |
| 8 | FC Ingolstadt 04 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 9 | -2 | 15 |
| POS | CLUB | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | 11 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 26 | 9 | 17 | 25 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 11 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 21 | 8 | 13 | 25 |
| 3 | Leicester City | 11 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 23 | 19 | 4 | 22 |
| 4 | Manchester United | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 15 | 8 | 7 | 21 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 11 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 19 | 9 | 10 | 20 |
| 6 | West Ham United | 11 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 22 | 15 | 7 | 20 |
| 7 | Southampton | 11 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 18 | 13 | 5 | 17 |
| 8 | Liverpool | 11 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 17 |
| 9 | Everton | 11 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 19 | 15 | 4 | 16 |
| 10 | Crystal Palace | 11 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 12 | 11 | 1 | 16 |
| 11 | Watford | 11 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 16 |
| 12 | West Bromwich Albion | 11 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 14 | -4 | 14 |
| 13 | Swansea City | 11 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 15 | -3 | 13 |
| 14 | Stoke City | 11 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 12 | -3 | 13 |
| 15 | Chelsea | 11 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 16 | 22 | -6 | 11 |
Bayern are already obviously champions, as they have been 10 times this century already and they have won the Cup eight times. They don’t do betting on who will win the league in Germany. At least in Spain they have two clubs to choose between with Real Mad and the Child Traffickers equal at the top. Atletico have had their go at the top and are giving it a rest for a while. You need to go to 11th to find a team on less than half the points of the team at the top.
And that’s the point really. Bayern has all the power, wins almost all the trophies and has sums of money to equal Real Mad and the Traffickers from its sponsors. Bayern’s main advertising partner is Deutsche Telekom. The main supplier of the club is Adidas. And that is before we get to Audi.
So yes, we can marvel at the quality of their football, but really, the story about the German league and its openness and competitive feel and… well. As is so often said. In Germany all the clubs start equal and then Bayern win the league.
We can, I guess, also wonder at the group we are in. Two of the four teams are under serious investigation for corruption and match fixing, with the owners and very likely the club being banned from European football unless they bribe their way out of the scandal. We have also played against a team using a player who failed a drugs test, and we’re bottom.
Personally I don’t mind us going out at this point so we can really have a bash at a third consecutive FA Cup, and a solid tilt at the League. I would genuinely also like us to miss the wretched Europa by coming bottom of the table, but failing that, I’d like the reserves and under 21s to play in those Europa games. That might be the chance they need to get a real breakthrough and would relieve our first team squad of trips to Albania and Uzbekistan or wherever it is Tottenham usually spend their winters.
Back home the injuries roll along and along, although even if you count Bellerin and Koscielny, we still aren’t top of the injury league table. Elsewhere the story is that Arsenal won’t offer new deals at the end of the season to Tomas Rosicky, Mathieu Flamini and Mikel Arteta although the Standard says no final decision is taken. Apparently the one thing that Flamini is now particularly valued for (apart from scoring against Tottenham of course) is that he is very much Wenger’s man in the dressing room.
Coming very shortly…
- Ex-Arsenal player Danny Karbassiyoon on how to get into football scouting
5 November 1932: Gillespie Road tube station became Arsenal (Highbury Hill). The Highbury Hill element of the name was later dropped as the station adopted its long term name of Arsenal. (“Chapman’s achievements“)
5 November 1932: Following the 8-2 win one week before Arsenal beat Wolverhampton 7-1 away. Arsenal thus scored 3+ goals for the fifth league match running – a feat not repeated under 2008/9
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We don’t need to proffer excuses for last night’s defeat. It’s no disgrace to lose to probably the best team in Europe at the moment, on their home patch and with at least 5 of our assured starters absent hurt.
Followers of the beautiful game will know that only one team can win a contest and sometimes the odds are so stacked against one of the teams, that the result is a foregone conclusion.
Enough said. We have a local derby against Spurs in 4 days time and need to prepare. It’ll be a totally different game, confidence needs restoring, tactics absorbed and perhaps some of the sick healed.
All who will wear the shirt expect 100% support on the day, please. 😉
” I would genuinely also like us to miss the wretched Europa by coming bottom of the table, but failing that, I’d like the reserves and under 21s to play in those Europa games. ”
Well said.
I don’t like Bayern. Their style, although effective, it just don’t thrill me.
Would love to see how they would fare in the PL week in week out, i suspect for all their talent, they would not be such a force.
Thanks for that, I was wondering how Bayern could afford to have a squad with the likes of Robben, Ribery, Costa, Lewandowski, Neuer, Thiago etc, and a manager like Guardiola, all with their massive wages, without some kind of financial assistance?
Of course having somebody build you a nice new shiny stadium helps…
Using the dreaded Europa as a test league for our under 21’s is a good idea. It’s not that it is an unworthy competition ( I’d rather us win this than the F A cup ), but the Thursday night action leaving a team to travel home from far flung places and then to recover and play again less than 48 hours later ( probably a Northern away game, so no prep time ) would take a heavy toll on already seriously tired players. It’s one of the reasons for Spurs dismal Premier League showing for a number of years.
So yes, use it to blood our youngsters in European football. What better experience could they get.
I watched last nights game on a Russian stream so don’t know if they showed the same transmission as UK one, but it went over the Ozil “goal” in detail and it certainly looked as though he deliberately moved his arm forward to meet the ball.
There appears to be some resentment at Bayern’s continuing success. Seriously? We’ve been here before re the financing etc. of German clubs.
Suck it up ( para I’m looking at you ). This is the team most likely to deservedly win the Champions League.
You only had to look at our bench last night to realise that our squad is threadbare. I odnt agree that last night was a sign we needed to buy Schneiderlin – that is crazy. He cant even get regular games for Man Utd. However, our injuries are not new. There is something about Arsenal, whether it be training methods, pitches, or impact injuries because our players are punished physically by other teams for the football we play, that means we pick up a lot of injuries and it has happened for so long that it should bepart of our planning. It’s now unreasonable to assume that we can rely on Ramsey, Wilshere, Rosicky, Gibbs, Walcott. None of those players really have a place in our squad no matter how good they might be. They are never going to avoid injury. We made the same mistake hoping Diaby would come good. They might have the odd run of 5-10 games where they can contribute well, but ultimately they are not going to be useful and in fact do more to hurt the squad through disruption and keeping other players out than helping us win consistently.
So, yes, I do think last night showed just how weak we can be when we suffer the usual spate of injuries we get every year. It remains to be seen whether thos einjuries will also derail our PL bid. As we have seen year in year out, I rather suspect it will.
Good stuff Tony.
My only comment on last night is to say what a difference the loss of a couple of payers makes.
Bellerin, Koscielny, Ramsey and Theo were missing last night, all of which had big games in the home game. The Ox was cover for Ramsey and he is missing. The lack of Thei or the Ox’s pace allowed Bayern to press us high, prefect for them.
We do need to get to the bottom of these muscle injuries, I acknowledge that some will be just obad luck but it seems as though whenever we go into big games we have key players missing. Bloody frustrating because we are much better than that result last night.
We can still qualify and it looks like the Olympiacos game could mirror the famous win in 1989. What a game that could turn out to be!
Jam Ram if only you would spend some time searching for data so that you can compare the number of days out the players you mention have had through injury, and then compare with other clubs’ players then we could have a debate, but without that data we can’t really debate the issue. There’s some good stuff on http://injuryleague.com/ which you could try
Off topic and sorry Brickfields but just ran in to this joke
Ron, an elderly man in Florida, had owned a large farm for several years. He had a large pond in the back. It was properly shaped for swimming, so he fixed it up nice with picnic tables, horseshoe courts, and some orange and lime trees.
One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond, as he hadn’t been there for a while, and look it over. He grabbed a five-gallon bucket to bring back some fruit. As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee.
As he came closer, he saw it was a bunch of young women skinny-dipping in his pond. He made the women aware of his presence, and they all went to the deep end.
One of the women shouted to him, “We’re not coming out until you leave!”
Ron frowned, “I didn’t come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the pond naked.”
Holding the bucket up Ron said, “I’m here to feed the alligator.”
Some old men can still think fast!!
Chief Tony, good morning Sir. Bayern were allowed to look great yesterday as the Gunners looked lost in their individuals and collective performance on the field of play. Agree, the referee cancellation of Ozil’s goal for a purported hands(ball to hand) was a big moment that interfered with the course of Arsenal game on the night. But there were big moments for Arsenal to score goals. But they didn’t. Giroud blasted to the sky instead of to the net as he wanted to score a spectacular goal which often doesn’t scored. But the normal effort often hit the target. He should have lowered his shot to get it in to the back of the net. Santi Cazorla missed 2 chances on a platter of gold that were begging him to please at least convert 1 of them. But he refused. He has not been playing well for Arsenal so far this season as he did last season. He has either been skying his goal scoring attempts or hit the woodwork. What’s his problem? Can’t he be lowering his efforts? Ozil was reported to have handled the ball. He and the other Gunners should learn from this trap. If an adversary is after a person, he can capitalize on any flimsy excuse to fault his targeted. Did our left&right mid-wingers tracked back to provide defensive cover for our 2DMs and our defense line and Cech? And did Coquellan&Cazorla shield their defense line adequately? Should the Boss re-schooled his Gunners in training sessions to properly over come their shortcomings? Arsenal can weather the cruelsome whether of going out early in their Ucl group stage campaign if Bayern Munich do us a favour by walloping Olympiakos at the Arena Allianz on match day 5 and us seizing on that chance to wallop Zagreb at the Emirates Stadium. And be battle ready for, is either Olympiakos or us to Europa journeys. It won’t be Arsenal.
Now Tony, I though 0 is both a positive and a negative! I got you there, eeh?! Seriously though, I think the major difference was the fact that we did not have our best team and the replacements were not at the Baye4rn level yet. Should we qualify ( which I think we will), we could easily beat Bayern later. We missed Theo, Aaron and Bellerin a lot, they were the difference because they nwould have given us an outlet going forward.
Good one Walter.
Tony, like you I thought Ozil’s goal was valid – the ball seemed to come off his chest/shoulder & there was no obvious hand ball. The muppet behind the goal line only seemed to come into play after vociferous appeals from the Bayern players.
However, while that may have been a game changer I am not trying to make excuses, we did not do well enough on the night.
The important thing now is to get the players into the right frame of mind for the Spurs match – so as fans we need to do our part – lets everyone get behind the team & give them loud support on Sunday.
Yesterday’s game convinced me that our 2:0 win at the Ems was no fluke.I agree with JW that if we manage to nip 2nd place in the group the first place team that draws us may be in for a surprisingly tougher competition than the press may lead them to believe.
I switched off my TV after the second goal, looking at the way we were playing, I prayed we wouldn’t end up with a cricket score! The deed is done the Tiny Totts up next, there is everything to play for in the EPL. Let us go then Gunners! Rip up the Totts? Yes.
This is getting silly.
After two matches, I was expecting us to lose both games to Bayern but was hoping Zagreb and Olympiakos would beat each other. Meaning we would have had to beat both of them – on aggregate – in the returns while hoping Bayern did us a favour.
In reality, the bonus was we got 3 points that I hadn’t expected from Bayern. The malus was that Olympiakos got 6 points from Zagreb. I was far more upset last night at the news of Olympiakos’s winner than I was with what went on in Munich.
Therefore, we still need to beat Zagreb and Olympiakos – but Zagreb is not an “aggregate” requirement although Olympiakos is. Even if we had beaten Munich we would still have had to beat Olympiakos, albeit not on aggregate.
Therefore, the bad news is that we now need to beat Olympiakos on aggregate as opposed to just beating Olympiakos.
One other point:
Jayram – your argument falls down because the injuries tend to impact one area of the squad disproportionately. Even if we assume we will have a lot of injuries, it is impossible to predict which area of the squad will be impacted. As for retaining faith with the crocks, most of them are young and therefore have a decent chance to overcome. Walcott has had a bad history – but who can deny his recent impact? I remember when we signed Overmars who had a terrible injury record – but he did very well for us.
You just don’t know.
I do sense that Arteta and Rosicky’s time may be up – but think Flamini still has a role to play. Welbeck, Wilshere (and Ox, Ramsey and the others) are all young and have every chance of making a significant future impact for the club. Are you suggesting we sell the likes of Welbeck, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ox…?
The defence has been heavily criticised – and, yes, it wasn’t good. But two key starters becoming unavailable just before the game is bound to have an impact! Defence is a collective endeavour, far more than attack. You just can’t take out two key components and hope the unprepared players can just step in seamlessly.
We were outplayed by a better team , led probably by a best football coach of the generation, playing at home at full, or near full strength.
Arsenal’s progress into knock out stages was never likely to depend on the outcome of this game.
If we fail to reach the knock out stages of the CL, there will only be one reason for it – not playing our strongest line up against D Zagreb and Olympiacos.
And no, it’s not hindsight, Proudkev and Bootoomee.
If you know anything about playing in group stages of any knockout competition, be it CL , World Cup or Euros, it is that you take your points when you can get them and you play your strongest eleven available.
The first game of the group stages is the most important game.
If for whatever reason you fail to win it, the second game becomes an absolute must win and you play your best players then.
For whatever reasons Arsene Wenger decided to rotate heavily for both games and payed the price.
Eleven changes for those two games was what cost Arsenal dearly and there’s no two ways about it.
What did Bayern and Guardiola’s do?
The same eleven started against Olympiacos and Arsenal away.
For the game against DZagreb , he only made three changes.
So Bayern only made three changes to their line up in the first three games, and none were made to their back four and the keeper position.
A quick look around other top clubs and their line ups , confirms no whole sale changes for their first two or three games of group stages either.
Why Arsene did it , we won’t know because he wouldn’t tell us, although he did admit he might’ve not taken the first two games seriously enough.
If he did it mindful of the length of the PL season and the toll it takes on players who aren’t rotated enough, then maybe he had a point.
If Arsenal win the league while dropping out of CL early, no one will make too much fuss , but if they fail in the league the early exit from CL will be a big black eye on this season’s for sure.
losing Kos for this game was clearly a bit of a blow
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11661/10055898/koscielny-tops-power-rankings
on other matters, Take it we wont be signing Benzema then…
Tom.
I take your point about playing your best team and I don’t totally disagree. However, there may be an argument that says that the reason for our Premier League form is because we rested certain players in the CL. My opinion is that the CL is a tournament that disadvantegs English clubs. The intensity of the English game, the fact there are no easy games and of course the physical demand on the players, all makes it more demanding on English clubs. Therefore, putting all your eggs in one basket means you may have to sacrifice both. Wenger may have decided that his priority was the Premier League.
Mertesacker didnt start against either Zagreb or Olypiacos but Kos and Gabriel did. Gibbs came in for Monreal but the rest of the team was pretty strong, Ozil, Cazorla, Sanchez, Giroud or Walcott, Kos, Ox all started. Bellerin played against Olympiacos but not Zagreb due to injury. Ospina was in goal for Cech but nobody before the Olympiacos game had said Ospina was going to have a mare, as he did against Olympiacos.
So we played a strong team that was good enough to win those games.
The fact the players didn’t perform is fair. The Manager doesn’t miss open goals or drop balls from crosses, these are International players that make these errors. The team he sent out was more than good enough to get 6 points.
It seems to me we have fans who demand rotation but don’t like it when it happens. I am not a fan of wholesale rotation but making one or two changes is smart, especially when players are carrying knocks or to help freshness towards the latter stages of the season.
As I said, our PL form is superb and that for me is the attainable trophy this season. As much as I love the CL, I am not stupid enough to think we will win it. I am also not stupid enough to treat every defeat as some kind of catastrophic event, as some fans do. Sure I was disappointed but I’ve been watching Arsenal since 1970 – so I am used to the highs and lows.
Shit, I stood on the terraces when we were finishing 17th and when George Graham lead that Tony Adams back four to 12th position – I never burned any of my underwear then and I’m not about to start now!
Yesterday´s game was always going to be tough, but personally I felt that things had just become much, much more difficult when it was announced neither Bellerín nor Koscielny would play. Having a completely revamped defensive unit against that team just wasn´t doable, and so I tend to concur with Wenger´s analysis, in that the result happened because of deficiencies in defence (not because of any individual player in particular, the whole endeavour). So I´m not really disturbed by the defeat and see no point in trying to integrate it into larger trends, even if I´m disappointed by the Olympiakos win. Win in Greece by a large enough score, and we will go on to the next stage, deservedly; otherwise, exiting the competition would be fair, and them´s the breaks. It has no bearing whatsoever on whether the team is excellent, and I feel good about Arsenal´s season regardless.
Nice post proudkiev
Fortunately or unfortunately The AAA and WOB would be happy at the Le groan after a dismal performance in Munich.They are making fun of the teams loss by 4 goals.I fail to understand that they are so critical of our loss but fail to remember that even super heavy weight teams lose matches by tennis scores in leagues and CLs too.They have very short memories indeed forgetting Real Barca and Bayern involved in 6/7 goals scores against each other in the last 2 years alone.
Simply pathetic stuff at Le groan.
We at Untold are a happy lot courtesy to Wemgers presence at AFC.
Rosicky.
You have to remember that the whole point of LeGrove is to be a home for the Wenger Out fan. In order to discredit Wenger at every opportunity, all defeats are ‘celebrated’ because it allows the agenda to flourish. This is why every defeat is made out to be worse than it actually is.
Good results are rarely acknowledged for being anything more than the other team having played badly or us being lucky.
The fact no team has a better points total or goals against total from January 1st 2015 is ignored as the talk is all about how hopeless our manager and half the players are. The fact they cannot actually see how they constantly undermine their own argument sums up their mindset. They are so desperate for negativity, everything positive is ignored.
Its actually very funny because they act as if they expect us to win every game, despite repeated claims that we have a crap manager and a crap group of players. Bizarre. Fantasy Football Managers stuck in an agenda that they dont want to free themselves from. It must be like wearing bloody chains – they refuse to enjoy positive results and just want to moan endlessly. What a bunch of losers.
All I can say is that those on that blog that are actually Gooners (there are lots of trolls and fakers) have a pretty warped view of what supporting a football club is all about. In many ways I actually feel sorry for them as they clearly get no pleasure from the game due to their delusional arrogance.
proudkev (@ 3:15 pm)
Damn you are good! That was beautiful.
Proudkiev
Irony of the fact is that the so called Arsenal fans at Le moan were demanding wengers head since 3/4 years for not winning silverware and when we won two FA cups they still fail to acknowledge and termed that FA cup is no trophy and even Wigan and portsmouth have also won.
Simply clueless mob.
A Wob has just booked a builder to build an extension on the back of his house. It is a single storey extension, 3m x 4m with a flat roof.
Builder: Good morning. I’ve looked at the plans and I’ll dig the foundations 1.5 meters deep, its a clay soil. I can start next Monday.
WOB: 1.5 meters? Dont be silly, you need to go 3 meters deep and lay hardcore and cement mix.
Builder: Its okay, I’ve been building extensions for over 20 years. 1.5 meter is fine.
WOB: So what? I’ve been on Youtube and I know the best way to build the extension. I’ve read the building regs.
Builder: Look, its a clay soil, so 1.5 meteres is fine. The price will be £22,000. I will need 10% up front for materials.
WOB: You need to dig 3.0 meters! So what if it’s clay? You want £2,000? I will be able to get the materials for £1,600 on ebay.
Builder: Look do you want the extenson built or do you want to do it yourself?
WOB: Foundations should be 3 meters not 1.5m and I could probably dig them in a couple of hours. Also, I did bricklaying at school. Perhaps you could just do the roof?
Builder: Look, this is silly. First off, you can’t dig foundations that deep in a clay soil and in a couple of hours. Why did you get me around for a quote if you are going to do it yourself?
WOB: I didn’t say I was going to do it myself, did I you twat. I just said I could. Just because you are a builder doesn’t mean you know best mate. You’re all the same you lot.
The WOB’s wife overhears the conversation and walks into the garden: “Pete come on, just agree to what the builders saying and lets get the job done properly, please.”
WOB: I can dig the foundations. I can pour the cement. I can lay the bricks. I can get the materials cheaper. I can probbaly do the roof. I can do the job much better.
WOBS Wife: What, like the heating system you installed?
WOB: Whats wrong with the heating system?
WOB’s wife: Well it doesnt even get warm, it scares the kids with the banging and the pipework leaks.
WOB: Well, thats not my fault.
Wobs wife. Pete, you installed the heating system because you said that plumber was an idiot. It’s your fault.
Wob: Well he was an idiot and how the hell is that my fault? That boiler he wanted to fit was over specification, the one I got is better.
WOB’s wife (exasperated): But Pete, we’ve had NO fking Heating for 3 months!!! Nothing. The kids are freezing, they have to sleep with their coats on. The kids goldfish died when his water froze.
WOB: Well that’s not my fault is it. I’ll get in touch with the water company.
Builder, interrupting: “sorry, what’s the water company got to do with the heating you installed not working?
WOB: Jesus, you’re all so stupid. It’s obvious the water they are sending us is far too cold to heat.
(Builder falls over holding his ribs, tears streaming from his eyes as he laughs uncontrollably)
WOB’s wife holds her head in her hands and starts sobbing….
WOB walks off muttering: “What the hell is wrong with all these fking morons….!”
The Ozil handball was diven by the goal line official who saw the incident through the Bayern defender. There were several Bayern players soliciting a handball following the goal. Most of them were blind side of the incident just as the referee was. The referee still saw fit to book Ozil for a foul he didn’t see. He didn’t book the Bayern players for dissent but rather took their ‘side’ & acted ‘Dean’ like. There is a case for Arsenal to query the behaviour of the officials in this particular incident.
Hi Tony,
Excellent article and I also disagree with our professional referees in regards to the Ozil disallowed goal. To my eyes, it looked the ball actually hit Ozil in the shoulder/deltoid area rather than the hand. Ozil’s right arm was bent across his body when he made contact with the ball, so the ball trajectory would have probably altered much more significantly if it had hit his forearm/hand area, at least from the best video I can find of the incident:
http://arsenalist.com/f/2015-16/bayern-munich-vs-arsenal/ozil-goal-disallowed-due-to-handball.html
@ proudkev – November 5, 2015 at 6:12 pm – Very nice one , but sadly and in truth , reflects on society today in almost every layer and strata . Stupidity is very rampant and probably here to stay .Especially with like minded inbreeding !
But then again a fool and his money have always parted ways !
Arsenal can now be blamed for losing long-standing pay-TV provider’s deal to EPL in Australia as well!
We’ve had every game of EPL brought to our screens by Foxtel over the last 15 years (at least). This is about to change next season as another provider, which doesn’t have a TV platform, mind, obtained the TV rights for the next three seasons, partly because Foxtel didn’t think it was worth enough to them. These were the comments of the CEO of the parent company:
“Hardcore fans of anything in Australia are called tragics, but the sweet spot for EPL at 2 in the morning [is]: tragics are insomniacs,” Mr Thomson said.
“You might have noticed yesterday, Bayern Munich beat Arsenal 5-1 in the Champions League which may be itself an indictment of the value of the Premier League.”
Tells you a little bit about the knowledge of the state of football by Australian media buffs, but thank you Arsenal for losing me the EPL! (tongue-in-cheek in case anyone’s confused)
http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/news-corp-ceo-robert-thomson-plays-down-english-premier-league-rights-loss-20151105-gksa3o.html
A very nice quote I received today . Ponder upon it.
It should only be talked about if the talking will make you feel better. It is of no value, ever, to activate and talk about something that doesn’t feel good, because it reactivates it in your vibration; it makes it another point of your point of attraction so you’re less clear.
In other words, when you focus upon the problems of others, you diminish your ability to help them. People believe that you’ve got to focus upon the problem in order to find a solution. And we say, no solution ever comes forth – it’s never inspired; you never recognize it, and you are never able to facilitate or achieve it – from your place of focusing on the problem. They are two entirely different vibrations. If you have someone who has many things going wrong and one thing going right, beat the drum of what’s going right, and let that be your point of attraction. If you focus upon their problems, you achieve vibrational harmony with something other than the Source that gives you solution.
—Abraham Hicks
I have to say I was gutted but I understood why we lost the game and the refereeing was skewed in the home teams favour case in point, Oezil’s handball. But what can you do when even the refs support your opponent? Looks like too little too small.