By Walter Broeckx
Another last match of the season in the Emirates and again I was there. Just as in recent seasons. Alas that gave me no chance to write the fast as lightning live match report Untold readers are used to for most of the time.
And so no real live feeling about the report. I sat in block 120 with my wife Carine who also has joined me for the last match last season. And with my brother Eric and his partner Nicole. And despite the final outcome of the day was that we didn’t enter the CL it still was a great and entertaining match to watch.
Arsenal started at a great pace and within the first minutes Welbeck should have put us in front but he missed from close range after a cross from Bellerin.
If that miss was embarrassing for Welbeck worse was to come. Arsenal attacked wave after wave rolled towards the Everton goal and you just knew a goal would come. Özil got the ball and crossed it low to Welbeck who only had to push it over the line but to his and our amazement he somehow managed to pull the ball away from goal… but there was Bellerin on hand to push it over the line.
Arsenal 1-0 in front after 8 minutes and completely in control. You felt that more goals would follow if we would keep on putting pressure on Everton.
But then came a few seconds of madness from Koscielny. He went in too wildly and missed the ball with his tackle. A red card was the result. And he will miss the cup final also as a result.
Now I can agree with the red card but why does it seemingly only happen to Arsenal players when they make such fouls? I think I have seen dozens of fouls like that where no red cards were given by many refs. And how the ref later managed to keep all Everton players on the field is still a mystery to me.
But with more than 75 minutes to go… 1-0 up and one man down. Arsenal adjusted a bit at the back and then we kept control of the match. Everton had a man more on the field but it wasn’t really visible. Alexis took a shot that bounced off a defender against Welbeck who hesitated slightly and then rounded the keeper and when he was too wide he just rolled it back to Alexis who had followed up the attack and scored our second goal.
2-0 in front still a man down.
But Everton now with Barkley on the field going forward more and a real goalscramble followed, but Holding managed to get in a block and in the end Cech dived on the ball. That was a real scare. Williams and Jagielka got yellow cards for poor tackle on Alexis. But some other fouls like an arm to the face of Monreal were not punished by the ref. Cech with some good stops at the end of the first half as Everton upped the tempo and Arsenal had to lean back a bit more. 2-0 in front at half time.
The first notable thing in the second half was a double chance for Welbeck and Özil but the Everton keeper saved both efforts and then followed the injury from Gabriel. From my position it looked that he played the ball and then overstretched but the ref saw a foul and gave Gabriel a yellow card and allowed the stretcher to take Gabriel off.
Now Wenger had to make a substitution and Per Mertesacker got his first playing minutes in the PL. I was there in Lens when he got his bad knee injury so I was glad to see him back on the field again.
Per played as Per does, stopping an attempt to go past him on the side line with one of those long legs from him. But a bit later a ball went in the penalty area and touched the hand of Holding. Oliver does what he always does these days: give a penalty against Arsenal. This time he was right as it was handball but I have seen him give wrong ones this season so I thought he would even things out but he didn’t. Lukaku scored from the penalty spot.
Schneiderlin tackled Xhaka and got a yellow card but Xhaka had to go off with an injury. Coquelin came in his place. A yellow card then against Holding for a foul after the ref let go a foul on an Arsenal player first.
Özil saw another effort stopped by the keeper. Alexis being kicked all afternoon then had to come off and went straight in to the tunnel also. Never a good sign. Iwobi came on.
In the last 20 minutes Arsenal were holding back and speculating on the counter attack. Led in a marvellous way by Özil and assisted by Bellerin who seemed to have found his best form again. But Iwobi and Welbeck managed to miss the chances to give us a 2 goal lead again. At the other end Per was showing why I rate him so highly by heading away a lot of balls and by being so calm and cool as a cucumber when under pressure. And if something passed Cech was in the right place.
Five minutes of extra time followed because of the Gabriel injury. Arsenal broke away a few times and when Özil glided past a few players he gave the ball to Ramsey who curled it majestically in to the top corner. 3-1 in extra time. What a wonderful goal that was. And have to give credit to the ref giving an advantage in the build up after a foul on Welbeck.
Arsenal broke a few times again but again the finishing lacked precision but it didn’t matter in the end as we won 3-1.
A very entertaining match with some players having some excellent performances. But a suspension and some injuries were the downside of this match. Up to the cup final…. and again no live match report from me….
Elsewhere
Henry Norris at the Arsenal: The collapse of Woolwich Arsenal: how the rescue took shape.
Enquiry into child abuse by employees at football clubs is yet again being hampered by the FA.
There is one Arsenal transfer that everyone is discussing, so maybe this is the one…
Who did the most this season for Arsenal and how much did it cost?
Nice one , Walter . I didn’t know that you would be attending the match. Must have missed it , as was busy with some work and the flu , and am yet to catch up quite a few articles this past week.
If I had known that you were attending , I would have been more calmer than usual in the knowledge that the score would definitely be 3-1 ! Especially without the calming effects any wine too !
Any chance of going back this weekend ?
Decent performance by the team….what has happened to Oliver…well,guess we know that.
Arsenal not have 3 red cards in the league this season….physical teams like Chelsea, Spurs, west brom and palace have none.
Have a feeling our new Bosnian left sided defender is going to have to…get used….to the refs next season
Hmmm. From the aforesaid, it looks like BFG is back to full match fitness after a long layoff. But will Le Prof start him against Chelsea in the Cup final? Will any of the individual and combined pace of Willian, Hazard, Costa, Moses, Pedro, Alonso and even Bathuaye not be too strong for the lack of pace Mertesacker to deal with successfully? Oh dear! Koscielny is suspended for this Cup final and even for 2 Arsenal opening 2 PL matches next season according to the FA disciplinary ruling. With Paulista out for the Cup final and Middleborough season campaign over, is Chambers eligible to play in this final? NO! I supose despite being a Gunner he won’t I should believe because Arsenal didn’t have him on their official 25 man team list registered with the FA for the second half of the just concluded season campaign. As an eye opener, would it be allowed by the FA to have a player on the official 25 man team list registered with them then loan him out if the club wants to do that? Okay, let’s forget about all that my side thought talks and take a look on how many CBs apart of Mert’ Arsenal have available for Chelsea. Holding, Monreal(adopted) Hmmm. Assuming Mustafi won’t be available, so, my Arsenal 3 man defense-line to play Chelsea are: Holding Monreal Gibbs. That’s okay if Gibbs will be serious. But Le Prof’s own may look like: Holding BFG Monreal. Danger in the center? Well it may look so on paper but turnout not to be the case at the end.
Mandy..
Oliver has been nobbled, that’s for sure. With Clattenburg gone, we now have the following number of decent, unbiased, referees in PGMOL:
PGMOL’s Sky plant, Dermott Gallagher, didn’t even mention the fouls committed on our players, but suggested that Gabriel could have seen red as well.
The FA have got away with it again, let off by a “Weak and Wobbly” government and a “bought” media.
Samuel..
The reason Chambers can’t play for us is because he is “cup-tied” having playing in earlier rounds for Middlesbrough.
A player can only play in the FA Cup for ONE team per season.
@Walter,
No report on your encounter with food so a black mark there.
Hope the fragrant Carine enjoyed the trip and her health is improving by every Arsenal match she attends. 😉
Brickfields….well…. er…. in fact… I will be in Wembley next Saturday!
Nicky, it was a 3 day trip we took so lots of food to digest 😉 If I get the time will write about it. But I am already preparing myself for the Cup final trip….
A good write up Walter.
Thought Oliver was dreadful – but as usual he was protected by the biased media.
The team played really well, 10 against 12 (11 orcs and a bandit in black!)
A good write up. I agree totally about the sending off and in line with your view, received a text from a Liverpool fan during the game who expressed great relief that they did not suffer from a legitimate sending off and a penalty too.
Just because we’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean they’re not out to get us………………
Thanks Walter , great news , so I’ll go for another 3-1?
Before some **** comes on and it’ll only happen if hell freezes over… here is an interesting true story .
HELL EXPLAINED *
The following is anactual questiongiven on a University of Arizona chemistry mid-term, and an actual answer turned in by a student.
The answer by this student was so profound that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well :
Bonus Question:
Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.
One student, however, wrote the following:
First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving, which is unlikely. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave.
Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today.
Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions, and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.
This gives two possibilities:
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.
So which is it?
If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that ‘It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,’ and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus, I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over.
The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is,therefore, extinct…leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting ‘Oh my God.’
THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+!
Am very sure Gord will have another alternate but interesting argument .
The floor is yours my friend!
@Norman14.
Okay. Thank you for this shared information
And speaking of heaven and hell…
A journalist goes to @#$%&*-+ for a documentary. In a little village he saw an old man and asked him to narrate a typical happy story of his village.
The old man smiled and began:”One day, a long time ago, my goat got lost in the mountains. As is our tradition, all the men of the village gathered to drink vodka first and then looked for the goat. When we finally found her, as is our tradition, we all drank some more vodka and all the men in the village each got their turn to mate with the goat. We had so much fun that day!”
The journalist realized that he couldn’t publish such a story so he asked the old man if he had another happy story.
The old man smiled again and started all over again: “Once, my neighbor’s wife got lost in the mountains. As per our tradition, all of the village’s men gathered to drink vodka and then went to look for her. As is our tradition, when we finally found her, all the men in the village got their turn to mate with the neighbor’s wife. We had great fun that day!”
The journalist couldn’t publish that story either and therefore asked: “Don’t you have a story that is less happy; something… umm … sadder?”
The old man’s smile faded. His eyes welled up….. In a sad, soft voice he began: “One day I got lost in the mountains…..
Thanks Walter – great report. I will be at Wembley too but I am dreading the cheating bastard with the whistle. Please may they (PGMOL) all get upset stomachs & be forced out of the match.
Some of the officiating in the under 20 World Cup is exemplary & should be seen as an education for officiating.
@ Menace – I am hoping that the Berk in black gets’ lost up in the mountains ‘ , like the tale above , but everybody else have fun and fond memories !
Oh , also included in my getting lost wish is the Chelski team , owner and fans too!
What ? It does takes an entire village !
Apparently, Wembley is not as English as I thought it might be:
http://londonist.com/2016/05/where-to-eat-and-drink-in-wembley
> According to recent UK census data, more than two-thirds of Wembley’s population is Asian — of which nearly half is Indian — so it’s no surprise that it has a large number of Indian restaurants and food shops. Mostly located around Ealing Road and the High Road, many are modest, family-run Gujarati and south Indian vegetarian places, but there are several north Indian and Sri Lankan restaurants, too.
And the article goes on to talk about many places for food.
But Walter is a sausage person. Apparently chicken is the meat of most Indian sausage. And Walter has mentioned sausages before that have curry in them. I think India should know a little about curry. 🙂
I guess the word for sausage is keema, and that for a meal with sausage is chaat. I am not seeing keema or chaat mentioned alongside any places in the Wembley area. Perhaps some Untolders can fill in?
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I see someone at Arsenal.com has realised that Wneger was spelled incorrectly. 🙂
Gord – kheema is mince & chaat is basically a savoury mix starter. Chaat is usually slightly sour & pungent to excite the taste buds. Tamarind & Yoghurt (soured milk) are added to chaat to ease the palate without filling the tum.
Kebabs can be sausage shaped, but generally sausages are only pork based. The Goan sausage or chorisao is based on the Portuguese choris but is a lot spicier. It is an acquired taste as the spice can overcome a palate that is not accustomed.
Thanks Menace.
Are there any places in the Wembley area that Walter could visit?
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Bad news on Zelalem. It appears he has damaged his cruciate ligament in play for the USA, and may be out 9 months. No news at Arsenal.com yet, so this could be BS.
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There was a blurb about Mustafi being questionable for final, what a mess. I wonder if Giroud, Ospina (others?) have played centre back? 🙂
‘There was a blurb about Mustafi being questionable for final, what a mess. I wonder if Giroud, Ospina (others?) have played centre back? ?’
I know you’re joking, but the way that we are losing defenders it might even come to playing forwards, mids etc out of position.
Joking apart, is the Mustafi “sickness” a bit more than we are led to believe? “Sickness” after concussion means what??
I think it’s time our players, who have been let down by PGMOL, most notably Hector and Mustafi, and severely injured as a result, should look at legal action.
Lack of “Duty of Care” for player safety would be a start!
Interesting that you highlighted Per in your report, Walter. It has occurred to me more than once that we could have missed Per’s calmness and maturity at crucial points this season. It shows how much individual players can contribute, and be missed.