By Walter Broeckx
Note before the match: If anything in this match report is not accurate or seen with rose tinted glasses or dark tinted glasses this is due to me having knee surgery this afternoon and I just got home from the hospital and might be slightly under the spell of all the sedation they gave me today.
Anyway a surprise start for Gooner/Gunner Car Jenkinson and for the rest also starts for Pleguezelo, Smith Rowe and Maitland Niles. Pfew they give me a lot of typing work today.
Arsenal team in full : Cech, Jenkinson, Mustafi, Pleguezelo, Lichtsteiner, Guendouzi, Ramsey, Smith Rowe, Maitland Niles, Mkhitaryan, Welbeck.
On the beach: Martinez, Holding, Torreira, Willock, Iwobi, Aubameyang and Nketiah.
Jenkinson at left back and Maitland Niles in midfield with Smith Rowe joining the attack. Arsenal on top as can be expected from the start but not really getting through the Blackpool defence. Mkhitaryan almost at the end of a diverted long ball but the keeper first on the ball. Still 0-0 after 15 minutes.
Mkhitaryan with a shot that was clearly deflected for a corner but the ref gave a goalkick. Guendouzi goes in the book for what looked the first foul in the match. The ref then gives a handball against Welbeck when the ball clearly was controlled by the shoulder. Are we looking at an ambitious ref who wants to climb up the ladder? My stream going down more than I like it for the moment. But still 0-0 after 30 minutes.
And while me stream goes down and comes up again I see a pass from Guendouzi that is turned in by Lichtsteiner at full stretch. GOAL! 1-0 to The Arsenal after 34 minutes. After that my stream is more stopping than running but just enough to see Ramsey miss a big but difficult chance when he can’t finish a cross with his left foot. Half time score 1-0.
Hopefully a better stream for the second half. And a better Arsenal. Welbeck with an attack and Jenkinson on the overlap. A cross down the middle from Carl but the keeper with hand to it but the ball falls to Smith Rowe who shoots the ball against the net with his left foot. GOAL!! 2-0 to The Arsenal after 50 minutes. A fine finish from the young talent.
A corner for Blackpool and he ball is headed against the crossbar. A let off and the first chance for Blackpool in the match. Well what I have seen from it up to now. Marc Bola the former Arsenal youth player clears a dangerous cross from Ramsey. Mustafi heads the resulting corner just wide. We can’t let this happen thinks the ref and so he sends Guendouzi off for…. the slightest of pulls. Coote remember the name as this will be one to fear in the coming seasons I think. Guendouzi goes off with two yellow cards. Ridiculous.
Torreira comes on to give some cover in defensive midfield and Maitland Niles is the victim of the acts of the ref. 2-0 after 60 minutes.
Mkhitaryan escapes but the ball took him wide to the left and his shot only hit the side netting. Blackpool get a corner and the score from it. They were giving a life line by the ref and took it. 2-1 after 66 minutes. Cech then with a folie losing the ball but lucky the Blackpool striker that scored was in an offside position from the pass.
Iwobi comes on after 71 minutes and he replaces Smith Rowe. The folie of the referee making sure that the youngsters have to be withdrawn from the playing field. And that first teamers who should get a rest before Liverpool have to come in action. The ref really calling everything in favour of Blackpool. Still 2-1 after 75 minutes.
Aubameyang comes on for Welbeck after 75 minutes. A dangerous cross from Iwobi but Blackpool can clear in front of Aubameyang. Aubaemeyang then torpedod down and even for this ref this was a red card. This was a brutal attack from behind with a scissor tackle. Both teams continue with 10 players after 85 minutes. I think the ref damn well knew he had tilted the pitch a bit too much. Aubameyang away but offside given and it looked correct. Twice. Trice. Cullen with a header for Blackpool but it went over. 6 minutes of extra time given? I missed the long injury then. Arsenal playing out the time in injury time not really looking for the third goal.
What looked an easy win was made a hard days night by a stupid decision from the ref. If you would give a second yellow card for such a minor foul then you should send off 5 or 6 players each match who commit two fouls.
In the end we won 2-1 and are still in the cup.
I hope you recover quickly from the surgery Walter.
I believe this dork has ambitions to referee more EPL games.
Blackpool have given Arsenal a Cup game to play for tonight in the first half of the match restricting them to only a goal at the break. But Arsenal who are known to come out strongly into the match in the 2nd half will do so in the 2nd half to mould Blackpool by 6 nil at fulltime. But was the match referee biased against Arsenal in the first half? Good to see Carl Jenkinson start in this match to play for Arsenal tonight. And Plaggy who is also starting to play tonight in his first senior game for Arsenal.
Sky Sports thinks the card on half time went to Blackpool.
The goal to Lichsteiner was his first for Arsenal.
Smith Rowe’s first goal at the Emirates.
COYG!
We could use a couple more goals, to shut this referee up.
COYG!
What did the Blackppol player do, for this ref to give a Blackpool player a straight red? Do we have another serious injury to deal with?
COYG!
Six minutes of time added on? From the commentary, there have been no injuries, just substitutions.
COYG!
@Gord,
It was a bad scissor tackle on Aubameyang by the Blackpool player. Coote made a number of errors today including at least twice signaling for a goal kick instead of an Arsenal corner when the ball was clearly deflected off a Blackpool player. Think the red to Guendouzi was payback from the ref after he called the ref out for twice missing the corner calls.
Absolutely right Jerry. He called him put and he sent him for it.
He now missed the weekend surely. Agenda much!
Same thing as yesterday. They need to stop conceding.
Spuds do me a favour and Palace manage to p*as me off twice in four days
.
Jerry that’s why 98% correct decisions are made. It’s the PGMOL way of reporting the level of cheating.
VAR? what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!!
The PGMOL are corrupt. VAR will only aid them in their scams. There is no transparency.
Despite a Coote sitting on the switch, Arsenal turn off Blackpool illuminations.
funny guardian article about spuds stadium trouble. Main message: Poch is a roaring succes. because iwith his budget restrictions you cant expect to win anything, so when they just play good football and get a champions league ticket, that s incredible marvelous indeed.
mmmm what man was in the same situation and getting Endless stick instead of this roaring defence and praise? talking about two standards…
Well the ref passed his Premier League dress rehearsal with flying colours! November is coming and the referees will conspire to derail our season because we have so far completely upset the narrative.
In other news, excuses abound for Tottenham and the difficulty of changing grounds. I don’t remember anyone giving us the same courtesy or credit when despite losing our best players and operating on a very strict budget, we made CL and challenged for honours during our move to the Emirates.
Sickening with all the xenophobia about that they are sucking up to an Argie, remember the Falklands? and countless football related dramas? Bloke was a dirty cheat as a player and now schools his fuelled up players to indulge to the max. But they all love him, all very fishy. I suspect Mr Lewis’s mates in the media have something to do with it. Jeff Powell chief of all things sport Daily Nazi related, life long spuddie for example.
WOO HOO, HOO ! Another win chalked up despite the referee’s vested intentions.
Thanks for the report , Walter. Hope you are up and back in action soon .
Up the Gunners !
Yes, best wishes for your recovery, Walter. You saw the match pretty much as my son and I did in the upper tier above the dugout. Still the same terrible standard of refereeing. But we still won! And unlike the people sitting round Tony, everybody round us stood up and cheered the goals. If you can’t do that, what’s the point in being there?