You might have thought that one or two journalists might have learned the lesson from Untold’s long-running criticism of Amy Lawrence over her comment about Arsenal having only two players who scored in double figures the season before last. The point was, it was true, there were two such players. But the “only” suggested every other team had many such players. In fact Arsenal were one of only five clubs that managed to get two players in double figures that season. We stay with the criticism because that comment was symptomatic of much that is wrong with the reportage of football in the so-called “serious” media.
But do they take the warning? No, it goes on and on. Take this one speaking of Ozil: “He isn’t alone in failing to progress his career under Wenger.”
That’s Barney Ronay in the Guardian, and like the infamous Lawrence comment it is true, but the emphasis in the statement is all wrong. The implication becomes one that suggests Wenger is infamous for having players who don’t progress. That in every other PL clubs the non-progression of players is rare, but in Arsenal it is a rampant feature of life.
Is it?
Holding, Koscielny, Monreal, Ramsey, Bellerin, Iwobi, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Nelson, Alexis, Coquelin, all current squad members who have come from a much lower level of football and flourished. And that’s leaving out players on loan or not currently in the squad.
Of course it is true, and also nonsense. Of course the Guardian ought to have learned. Of course they haven’t.
And so we move on.
Arsenal are facing the prospect of a “defensive crisis this Saturday, with Laurent Koscielny not back in full training and Shkodran Mustafi likely to miss an extended period with a suspected thigh tear.” That’s the headline. “Defensive crisis.” The fault is Wenger’s for not buying more defender. Forget the fact that we can only have a squad of 25 players. Let’s blame Wenger.
The latest report for today’s game is that Arsène Wenger feels today might be a risk to start Jack Wilshere in the game. Substitute yes, but not quite ready for the intensity of the competition. Another Europa game in full is needed first. He is almost back to his best after Bate Borisov but the last thing wanted is a relapse from an industrial challenge in front of a referee whose grasp of the rules is (on occasion) minimal.
“If the competition was less ferocious, he is ready to play,” Mr Wenger said. “I wouldn’t be scared to play him. In the Premier League he can play [in the near future]. He is nearly back to his best.” Mr Wenger made it clear Jack would get his chances soon enough, but everything would be done to ensure the chance of another injury is minimised.
“Physical contact,” said Mr Wenger, “is part of his game. You cannot ask a guy not to go into any contact. I believe it is his strength. His strength is to turn the game forward and have acceleration individually or with the ball. Sometimes when he accelerates individually he pushes the ball too far and gets confronted.”
Wenger also spoke about Mesut Özil saying, “I genuinely think he wants to stay. But I am always positive about that. Of course he is important. But I have many players – we spoke about Jack, we spoke about Iwobi. They are all players who play in this similar position and it is very interesting because it gives me a lot of opportunities to keep them all focused and refreshed.
“People go quickly to conclusions. Last year we played the last 11 games and won 10. We beat Man City in the FA Cup semi-finals and Chelsea in the final and he played as well. You can always find the example. But it’s true that we have done well recently.
“We live in the world where people have opinions and sometimes they are right and sometimes they are not always proven right on the longer period. You need players who have quality and Özil is one of the best players in the world.”
So to the team. Something like this, perchance…
Cech
Holding Koscielny Monreal
I’ve left out Alexis, as I am not at all sure about the way he plays after the rush back from, Chile – and particularly the way he plays after a Chilean defeat.
And thus to be beach… I know Welbeck is fit but I think he will get brought back into the team slowly using the Europa and League Cup games to get him back to full PL fitness.
I think it’s fair to blame wenger, yes we have 25 players, but in that we include iliev, macey, Debuchy, akpom. For me at least 3 of those could have been left out and replaced with better options.
@ atid
With such astute, professional honed opinions like that, I’m sure premier clubs will be inviting you for an interview quite soon…..
Been watching Poor! vs Manure
Poor game. Getting bored.
Ox coming in after 78 minutes. He definitely has a far better position there compared to the one he had at Arsenal……
Say what you want, Arsene got a bucket load out of him.
With 5 minutes to go in the live PL match between Liverpool and Man Utd at Anfield I’ve been watching and the match looking will end in a goalless draw after Oxlade Chamberlain masqueraded briefly when he was brought on. I’ll love it if the match ends goalless to present Arsenal with a chance to capitalise and close the gap on Man Utd in the table and widening it on Liverpool. That will be a hilarious weekend for us the Gooners.
As usual you’re quoting the Amy Lawrence “only two” completely out of context. If you go back & read the article you’ll see that Wenger was complaining that his forwards were not scoring enough goals, so she gave that figure (which was quite true) and in no way a reference to other team’s goal scoring stats.
Its it just a coincidence that she’s just made one of her regular Arseblog Arsecasts?
I have just watched the most boring game ever, Liverpool v Man U.
A masterclass in Mourhino ruining football as entertainment, no intention whatsoever of trying to win the game.
I think a good coach will never change winning team,Ozil is back and iwobi is doing great for now. Wilshere should hold his peace and Wai for his better time.
Mr Drummond, I respect your starts and bench for this our away PL match against Watford later this evening at the Vicarage Road. It is a match Arsenal MUST win to take advantage of the slipup in the table by Man Utd and Liverpool in a teatime kickoff PL match at Anfield today.
But nevertheless, I’ll like to read into the starting and bench mind of Le Prof for this our Watford game this evening by reiterating my starts and bench for the match which I think Le Prof will use as his weapon to attack this match to collect all the 3 points that will be at stake in the match.
My 3-4-3 starts and bench for the match.
Starts:
Cech
Holding Mertesacker Monreal
Bellerin Ramsey Xhaka Coquelin
Iwobi Lacazette Sanchez.
Bench;
Ospina Koscielny Kolasinac Elneny Ozil Welbeck Giroud. .
For me, Le Coq to play left wing back in place of Kolasinac I’ve benched to get healed properly before starting a match again. And of course I don’t expect Le Prof to force start Koscielny due to his Achilles which I think still need time to have more rest before he can start a match again. Sanchez should start! Therefore, I expect Le Prof to start him at the left side of the front three. He can be interchanging positions with Iwobi during the match who I’ve started at the right side of the front three.
Come on Palace, Stoke and Bournemouth!
Cech
Koscielny, Mertesacker, Monreal
Bellerin, Kolasinac
Xhaka Elneny
Iwobi, Welbeck, Lacazette
On the beach
Wilshere
Ozil
Giroud
Ospina
Walcott
Holding
Coquelin
No Alexis, No Ramsey
It appears that Chelsea have lost to Crystal Palace
@Jax
Amy Lawrence is extremely knowledgeable about Arsenal football but I cannot remember an article that she has written about Arsenal that does not have a qualifier reminding or perhaps informing the reader of some past real or perceived Arsenal failure. Even after an Arsenal victory, she seems to find something wrong in the way it was done.
I watched the Liverpool v ManU match. You’ve got to hand it to Mourinho, his teams know how to play defensive football. However, they were not able to find the balance between offence and defence, and produced almost nothing on offence. Liverpool had 2 golden chances to win.
I’ve been shapping my TV channels to watch the PL matches between Tottenham Hotspur and AFC Bournemouth. And also between Crystal Palace and Chelsea. Bournemouth looked to lack confidence to play against Spurs and also looked to be Wembley Stadium frightened In the first half. Despite their falling 1-0 behind Spurs early in the 2nd half of the match, they are currently looking a bit better in their playing in the ongoing 2nd half as they’ve defended well by blocking the goals scoring King, Harry Kane from scoring so far in the match.
While at Selhurst Park, Crystal Palace are looking to have confidence to take on Chelsea efficiently with their tenacity playing against Chelsea in the match, blocking all attempts by Chelsea to equalize in the game since they took 2-1 lead in the match in the first half of the match. Why did referee Andre Marriner booked the Crystal Palace no6 just now for blocking a Blue who wanted to masquerade into Palace area? That’d looked a harsh booking to me. And has manager Roy Hudgson revinjunated Crystal Palace by their unexpected very strong showing against Chelsea?
I am hearing the TV commentator saying Sanchez and Ramsey have been dropped in our match against Watford coming up shortly. Whatever be the Gunners dropping Le Prof is forced to dropped for this match, Arsenal will still beat Watford by 0-3 at fulltime of the match.
The match between Crystal Palace and Chelsea has ended in a 2-1 defeat for Chelsea. Thus making it a back to back defeats for them in the Premier League this season. But the big question now that needs answer from the Gunners is, will they capitalize to take advantage of the stuttering of 3 of their PL rivals of Man U, Liverpool and Chelsea in the table today by beating Watford to close the gap on Man Utd and overtake Chelsea and Liverpool in the table? Let the Gunners answer this question positively with an emphatic win over the Hornets this evening.
Well done Palace a great result. A lot of my colleagues will be very happy.
Spurs just about manage to overcome there Wembley hoodoo. Tight result but sounds more comfortable than the score suggests.
Amazing result at the Etihad, but hey, if I’d spent £500 Million (net) in the last 5 years perhaps I’d expect to beat Stoke at home by 5 goals as well.
I know City fans will see that sort of comment as bitter and twisted but it’s not. It’s just that anything City do, no matter how beautifully or impressively, it must be put in to perspective.
I like City, I enjoy watching them, and if Arsenal cannot win the league, then I hope they do, but that doesn’t change the facts.
GGG
I look out for that.
She’s not really an investigative type journo, but more comment & opinion, so often comes across as a bit bland IMO, but I’ve never seen her put Arsenal down, and her book on The Invincibles is a good read.
Also I think Tony’s statement that ‘she deliberately misinforms her readers’ is libellous.
One wonders why this treatment of the Watford player’s hand is not happening off the pitch.
Watford is playing an extremely high line. If we can get the ball to our midfield and run at the defence we could get a bucketful of chances.
Iwobi is doing pretty well pulling the strings up front.
Crystal Palace goals – just like London buses wait a long time with nothing & then 2 come at once -ding ding Stamford Bridge anyone?
Per!
‘Ole Uncle Per just delivered again 😉
At least the hand bandaging gave Lacazette the chance to change his boots without missing any of the game.
Good to see that Watford are not time wasting.
Where’s the hysterical one today?
Good to hear his chant again!
How many times did the commentator need to remind us that we had not scored an away league goal this season. It got boring.
@Mick
as boring as Sky hyping up Pool-MU as the biggest match in the existence of the universe (always)
That’s the third time Richardson’s gone down like that.This time he got lucky!
Swarbrick stole two points…wtf
From former Premier League referee and Sportsmail’s Graham Poll
‘That was definitely not a penalty. Richarlison has gone down far too easily and made a meal of it leaving the referee with a very difficult decision,’ Poll told BT Sport.
Didn’t Bellerin kick the ball out there for a corner?? Been seeing lots of diving in our penalty area and if ref had cautioned one then it would have stopped. So easy to give these decisions against us..
Come on Giroud, get us a goal! Or any gunner.
COYG!
There was nothing difficult about that decisions Mr Poll, to anyone with a working pair of eyes..
Of course he points to the spot. Less contact than on Welbeck. Why doesn’t Swarbrick just give the 3 points to Watford and let the lads rest. Prevent some injuries. He won’t let them win.
In what way was that a difficult decision?! I wonder if that embarrassing decision will get as much media coverage as Sanchez supposedly cheating against West Brom. Will it fuck.. What a shame to see the game ruined by such blatant corruption. I really find it hard to enjoy football when shit like this happens game in game out.
This league… i give up.
Must be awfully disheartening for the players. I’m sitting on my favorite chair and I’m hanging my head. If I were working as hard as the team I’d have had a word with Neil and had a red card. Can the Board at least make a public statement about this chicanery? It’s affecting their bottom line. Don’t they care? Hope the ref will ALLOW AFC to at least keep a point. Probably won’t. To those who say I whining – get stiffed unless you’ve supported the club as long as myself and some others on here. And if you have you’ve seen the bias, unless of course you’re blind, in which case you’ve heard or read about it. It’s really enough.
Are Arsenal allowed to go for the ball without giving a foul away? We’re literally not even allowed to tackle their players. I know the focus will be on that awful penalty decision, but this ref has been so unbelievably biased for the entire match. Yet another game that we’ve had stolen from us. As soon as we get on a fairly decent streak, I guess they had to chime in with a Dean-esque performance, just to remind us of our place. So fucking tired of this league.
Christ between the ref and our lack of tactical awareness could this be any worse? It’s like Ground Hog day everytime our rivals slip up we make a meal out of lesser competition. God we have Man City away in a couple of weeks! Not a game for the feint of heart Gooner!
Just wait until the morons arrive and blame Arsenal for not having scored more goals to even it out.
Game over FFS!!!!
A game gping our way changed by referee mistake….but no..lets not blame them, its Wenger
Seriously we are f@cking rubbish!!!!!
Three points lost & two key players injured. Deely was possibly offside on the second goal. Bad bad day.
Hmmm, that was disappointing.
Shot on target 2:8
_off target 7:3
Corners 2:5
Offsides 1:0
Fouls 8:10
Yellow 1:0
Goal Kicks 5:7
Treatments 3:4
%Arsenal Possession
_5 50
10 61
15 63
20 61
25 53
30 55
35 57
40 57
45 55
45+5 57
50 56
55 57
60 54
65 54
70 52
75 51
80 59
85 50
90 51
90+ 49
—-
Looking at Google for news about referees in England, there is nothing about bad decisions or corruption.
But there is something interesting:
http://www.theargus.co.uk/NEWS/15595122.Referee_tackles_tough_mountain_challenge/
Referees can raise their games for this, but they can’t officiate properly in the EPL?
The quicker we get rid of Ozil the better.
the number of morons inn this universe is staggering
What’s the point? No comment!!
Wenger stated that to win the PL you cannot lose more than 5 games. Well we’re 60% of the way there and only 8 games in….
It sure is Al, how we can continue to come up with excuses year in and year out for this kind of mediocre performance is beyond even the most challenged intellect.
Once we go defensive, we tend to lose it sometimes.
Not good decisions from manager, this allowed Watford to “breathe” and then score the killer goal, which we should have been doing, being away and all that. But, i’m used to that by now.
This sure seems like deja vu. I start to wonder if one has to “bid” for the title or is following some script written by those that deem what is “entertainment” or good football.
“Football is fixed!” he cried, “it’s damm well fixed for TV ratings and PR. They feed us this garbage and expect us to eat it”.
He was still shaking his head uncontrollably as they led him gently away.
And that’s why, when people start thinking that Arsenal are finally getting a fairer lay of the land, they need to remind themselves that this is the pgMOB we’re dealing with here and any time Arsenal get on a decent run or when we’re looking dangerous to other teams, we’ll suddenly start coming up against some of the poorest and most biased referring performances that you’ll see in the entire PL.
Look the ref was crap but to be honest we shouldn’t be so desperate for the ref to micro-manage a game when we’re playing Watford. We should be getting 2 or 3 goals at least so the ref’s decisions do not matter. 90 minutes and we argue about a bad decision or two, we cannot be reduced to that level of desperation.
Any Arsenal fan that places the blame of this defeat at anywhere other than the disgusting performance from the referee, is really just shamelessly showing their true colours.
Seriously Jammy? We only mustered 1 goal and you blaming the referee for losing and any supporter as negative? Are you 12?
I fear the ref would make Arsenal lose, fear came true. Ref wanted Watford to win to make another Leicester fairytale. Watford first goal shouldn’t have been a penalty and I wonder whether Deeney was offside for the second.
The ref report is on. Oops sorry it should be match report….
It takes a second to score a goal and we had over 5400 and only scored 1. The ref arguably got the decisions wrong leading to the Watford goals but seriously, we were playing Watford and have resorted to the desperate level of blaming the ref for us not being able to score…. Very sad
Hey 5th Gen – in case you haven’t noticed, Watford are not push-overs this season. And regardless of play, regardless of tactics, regardless of your dislike of Wenger one should have a reasonable expectation of the ref getting the big calls right. Give Welbeck the penalty and it’s 0-2. Don’t award the pk to Watford and it’s 0-2 until the 91 minute. Final – 1-2. Go back and look at both calls. Everything else aside, that’s the difference. Unless of course you just want to piss on about how AFC are shite.
@ Goonersince72 – Same argument every time we lose… It was the ref. How about we simply aren’t good enough? Oh and I’m a Gooner since ’66!
Very angry about the decision to start Welbeck, now he is crocked again and we are 3 points worse off! Could we ever do anything right?
5th Gen Gooner – Thank you so much for showing how many seconds there are in a match, you’ve really put things into perspective for me.
The referee literally gave them a free goal. For absolutely nothing. Not to mention the fact that if we even touched a Watford player, it usually resulted in their free-kick. Do you even realise what a huge mental and physical handicap that would put on a player?
I genuinely cannot believe that you are placing all of the blame on Arsenal. Your so caught-up in your need to criticise Arsenal, that you can’t even see when we’ve been blatantly robbed. For an apparent Arsenal fan to be doing this, is just plain shameful. Why do we have to have “supporters” like you? All the other teams fans are always outraged after they’ve been robbed like this, they don’t look to attack their own team afterwards.
5th Gen, you do understand most of the Arsenal players played World Cup qualifiers for their country, Watford players most did not so they had two weeks to prepare. Every ref decisions count, bad ones can make teams lose. Usually I don’t put blame on refs but this match the ref largely contributed to the lost.
Hope Welbeck and Kos are not badly injured.
On to the next match, let hope the team can bounce back.
@Jammy – I get the ref was a twat – as they always seem to be when ever we lose – but seriously, we were mediocre at best playing relegation contenders when we are supposedly top four material. We have been in decline for years now and are faced with losing 100 million worth of talent for nothing because we cannot let go of a manager that has had his day. I actually support the team financially by attending approx 10 – 15 games a season not including shirt and Sky/BT sports costs. Think I have a right to moan don’t you?
Herrera foul on Coutinho in the Manchester United box was more heavy handed but ref didn’t give penalty to Liverpool, Bellerin just slightly touch the Watford player and it’s a penalty, the inconsistency and incompetent is amazing in this so called ‘ best league’. Bring in the Video Ref as soon as possible please.
I’m usually a bit defensive of referees. Where I see incompetence others see corruption, but with this & the Stoke result I’m beginning to lean towards the C word.
And yes, we were quite poor at times, but were still in a winning position until Swarbrick’s interventions.
5th Gen Gooner – Apart from last season, we have been moving up 1 league position each year. We’ve also won 3 FA cups in the past 4 years. That looks like decline to you, does it?
Well, it’s painfully obvious what your agenda is (and not in the conspiratory sense) and nothing I say is going to change that. It’s pointless conversing with you, as you are clearly not a rational individual (when it comes to Arsenal). You refuse to change your mind, even when presented with so much evidence that challenges your views about Arsenal being such a terrible team, which coming from somebody that supposedly loves Arsenal, seems very, very odd to me.
5th Gen Gooner – I’ll repeat since you don’t get it. Those decisions were the match. I don’t deal in ‘what ifs’. We didn’t score more goals. Period. But we should have had a pk and Watford shouldn’t have, whether either team played well or not. AFC didn’t lose to Liverpool because of the ref. They were atrocious. It doesn’t matter that they didn’t play the game of their lives, the decions on the pk’s were the difference. You can’t get passed your dislike of the Manager and certain players.
And you have a right to moan but not bring up how much you spend. When I see my couple of games per season I have to fly from the States and put myself up. I’ve never brought up money, it’s irrelevant to support of the club. Millions and millions of supporters never see a game or spend much money beyond a shirt. And they LOVE the club. You seem to deem them irrelevant. And by the way, I was out of university and working in ’72. How old were you in ’66?
Sorry, but two wrongs don’t make a right. Neither penalty should have been given. Welbeck was not fouled, but went down following legitimate contact.
And at least one goal scoring part of Deely’s bulk was offside at the second goal.
Jax
I don’t disagree. You give both or none, That’s where there seems to be bias. And yes, Deeney was offside but keep in mind the AFC goals disallowed for ‘offside’. A part of a foot, FFS?
To clarify, I was referring to the Lacazette disallowed goal.
Goonersince72
Yeah, I referenced that disallowed Lacazette goal mysel in an earlier comment.
I’ve often been over sympathetic to referees and allowed them to be ‘incompetent’, but now I’m leaning more towards corrupt.
The Mail & Guardian both think the penalty was wrong.
If someone shoots Wenger in the head while asleep in his bed (God forbid), some people will still find a way to blame him. Comments like, “He ought to know that he shouldn’t sleep in his bed everyday”, “Wenger lacks tactical nous. Why would a man get shot in the head in bed? Shouldn’t he have put his legs on the pillows instead?”, etc. would seem normal to some “supporters” out there…
HA HA HA! Too true!
Strange logic Gideone
What is the matter with you? Do you really believe we are championship winning material? Seriously stop blaming our failures on some Iluminati conspiracy!
@ Jammy & Gooner Since whatever, We have been progressing since when? Last I checked we are in the Europa Doze league????
Jammy tell me what your optic prescription is please so my optometrist can prescribe me the same fantasy goggles.
Am I the only one who thinks 90 minutes should be judged by what the teams do on the pitch and not what the ref calls?
5th Generation
I take your point. We’re where we deserve to be both in the PL & Europe, and this is where we’ll be for some time,or until major restructuring takes place, but match changing issues deserve to be discussed however irrelevant to our situation they appear to be
And while it’s up for discussion I’m probably a first generation Gooner even though I come from Highgate, as I know of nobody in my family who suppported Arsenal, but I’m still previous to both of you. I think my first paid match was in 1956 or 1957.
And just seen a replay of the equalizer , sorry winner from Watford, and I am sure that Deeney was more offside than Lacazette was at Stoke. But no focus on that this time.
I even watched MOTD and the match reporter was right: no penalty. The twat next to Wright danced around the question with a non-answer. It was a rather easy question Linneker asked but he didn’t have the guts to say it was a dive. Instead he brought up Wenger…. I don’t think Wenger has given any penalty in the PL so far in his 21 years of managing Arsenal.
Just got a good reminder of why I don’t watch MOTD anymore….
I listened to the match on Arsenal Player & I just read most of the comments. 5th Gen you have no idea of football supporters. Those that say the officiating was poor, actually mean that it was corrupt. When an organisation is run by a proven corrupt individual -Mike Riley, it is obvious the whole bunch of select twats fall in with his ideology. Selective vision is a sinful gift that has no place in professional football as its use costs the game millions. The paying public are robbed of a fair amount of football whilst being cheated of honest balanced officiating.