By Walter Broeckx
Arsenal starting with Leno, Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Luiz, Monreal, Guendouzi, Willock, Ceballos, Aubameyang, Lacazette and Nelson.
On the beach : Martinez, Chambers, Kolasinac, Pepe, Torreira, Mkhitaryan, Martinelli.
So a starting place for Ceballos and Luiz two of our new players.
Arsenal having a good start and pushing Burnley back in their half. Ceballos with a first attempt but it goes a few meters wide. Arsenal get a free kick that is headed by Sokratis to Lacazette who is free in front of goal but the keeper can push the ball over the crossbar. The corner is given and Lacazette gets the ball in a crowded area. Pieters is all over him and Lacazette goes down but manages to keep control of the ball and shoots while on the floor and the ball goes through the legs of the Burnley keeper. GOAL! 1-0 to The Arsenal after 13 minutes. Deserved on what we have seen so far.
A long ball finds Barnes for Burnley but he drags his shot wide. Better stay focussed! Burnley using the block the keeper tactic on corners and Dean does nothing of course. Leno with a good stop but it was offside anyway. Another corner and another goal moth scramble but Guendouzi can clear the ball in the end. A long ball finds a Burnley playr completely unmarked but luckily his cross is bad and Maitland-Niles can clear. Meanwhile we are practicing russian roulette in our own penalty area with playing the ball around dangerously. Ceballos is certainly looking to be an addition to the squad with neat footwork and running around a lot trying to get us going forward but we don’t really produce a lot for the moment. Burnley has taken the match in control.
Aubameyang gets a yellow card for being too close to a free kick when it is taken. A good attack finally and Guendouzi has a shot but the keeper can stop the shot with his leg and then Burnley can clear. Burnley counter and the ball gets deflected and falls to Barnes who can score from close range. 1-1 after 43 minutes.
Arsenal wakes up and a good combination on the left flank brings Monreal in some space and his cross is expertly finished by Nelson but the flag had gone up. The VAR confirms the decision on the field. Monreal was one foot offside. Mind you the linesman on this side had hawk eyes during the first half as he even stopped us when we were not offside. But correct is correct so 1-1 at the end of the first half.
One change at half time. Pepe came for Nelson who sat on the bench with an ice bag on his ankle. Pepe very lively from the start. Almost a good combination with Aubameyang but the cross is cut out. A bit later Aubameyang with a shot from distance but the ball sails wide off the post. Pepe with a good ball to Aubameyang but the keeper can smother his effort. Burnley with a header that goes over. But they are on the back foot since the start of the second half with Arsenal dominating.
Ceballos with an effort from just outside the penalty area but Pope with another save for Burnley. Ceballos loses the ball but wins it back and gives it to Aubameyang who comes in from the left flank and has a shot from just outside the penalty area that beats the keeper. GOAL!! 2-1 after 64 minutes.
Let us hope we don’t fall back in a defending position like we did in the first half. Guendouzi doing just enough to prevent a chance for Burnley. Kolasinac comes on for Lacazette. Pepe with some outrageous skills but he is stopped by a number of Burnley defenders in the end. Could have used one of his teammates better maybe. Again Guendouzi with an important intervention when Burnley look dangerous.
After 83 minutes Torreira comes on for Ceballos who had a great first match at the Emirates. In the last minute Willock with a great run finding Torreira but again Pope can save the ball and keeps the tension in this match. Pepe breaks away but his pass is behind Aubameyang and Burnley can counter on their turn. Dean thinks he has to book a few more Arsenal players so Luiz and Sokratis get a booking. Burnley get a corner that is not really cleared and Luiz has to head it over his own crossbar. The Burnley keeper is in our penalty area for the corners but Rodriguez for Burnley shoots well over. Dean lets us play for almost 6 minutes despite only 4 minutes being shown by the 4th ref. Barnes also gets a yellow card from Dean probably to even things up a bit.
Arsenal win 2-1 against Burnley. I hope we don’t use this tactic of scoring and then falling bak around our penalty area too much as it invites pressure on our defence. Also the playing the ball in our own penalty area looks terribly dangerous and only lead to 1 good attack from playing yourself out of it. A tactic I really don’t like as we invite pressure and we spend some 10 minutes of the match playing the ball around in our penalty area with a high risk. Better listen to Johan Cruijff who use to say: when the ball is in the penalty area of the opposition they usually can’t score in our goal.
Interesting match. Burnley’s tactics were basically to lump it into the box and hope. I won’t say that they were mugging us because they won some good headers but they did block our keeper. You could see it clearly on corners because we would play a higher line (6 yard box) and one player would detach and stand in front of Leno.
Burnley’s goal was a bit lucky (deflection) but there was some good skill shown by Barnes to trap it and knock it home. Bit of a thug and a whinger, that one, though.
I thought Ceballos played well and as he learns about his teammates, he is going to be good. As for Pepe…he, too, needs to getting bedded in…he doesn’t seem sure where to go and what to do with the ball. His pass on the 2-1 with Aubemayang was…not of the expected quality. It almost cost us.
Our defence was solid. Sokratis and Luiz did a good job in the centre. Both of them are not afraid to organize – this is good.
As for playing it out from the back…it seems we WANT to have some pressure because that requires bodies…then if our passing and movement is good we can bypass the first 4 and have an outnumber situation in midfield…well, we are getting better…it wasn’t like last year BUT our second phase (after the other team moves up) is still a bit laborious.
On the other hand, when Leno kicked long we lost possession EVERY time. That should be worked.
All in all…another 3 points…this is good. We should be smiling because we know that our players can still improve as a team whereas Burnley may have peaked already.
GoinggoingGooner, but I think some 10 times we just kicked the ball forward in the end of playing the ball around in our own penalty area or kicked the ball out of play. I still think Cruijff knows best 😉
I missed the game, so I am reading commentary. The commentary I have, shows that a single need for treatment was required in the game, on Torreira shortly after he was brought on.
I guess the offside and foul statistics are at least partially due to PGMO bias; we were offside 5:1 and fouling 15:10.
Hopefully no serious injuries out of this game.
—
There was that JLT Marsh thing on injuries in the news. They never attempted to correlate injuries to the need for treatment on the field.
I wonder why Mike Dean didn’t call a phantom foul for this?
https://www.planetfootball.com/videos/watch-dani-ceballos-tricks-three-burnley-players-with-maradona-turn/
Mike Dean was their best player. Incredible to hear Dyche complain about players falling over with the assistance given by Dean to them.
Ceballos – take a bow! Brilliant performance!
Aubameyang just gets better & better!
3 points… Mike Dean is still a tool.. but I’m a very happy gooner on the train home!! Nice one boys!!
Now come on City!
@Walter I agree that it would be preferable to regain the ball immediately after losing it (i.e. in the other team’s half) but it seems that Emery wants us to play it back to Leno as a tactic when we have recovered the ball with our back line and wait for the other team to stretch forward. Ironically, given your comments, I just finished reading Johan Cruyff’s autobiography. 🙂
WOO HOO, HOO ! Another 3 points, with both our main forwards on target.
Up the Gunners !
I definitely think it’s a work in progress but I’m very very hopeful.
There were times today we looked a click away from the good old days.
Once this lot have got to know each other I think we can expect some great things.
The Dean was a quandary today.
Certainly seemed to be some tilting going on but then at the death, when he really could of screwed us by letting that off-the -ball incident go (and lets face it he could easily of not seen it nudge-nudge) he made a great call and stopped them in their (dangerous) tracks.
What to make of it?
Dean is a cheat and should not be allowed on a sports field. He was deliberate in his bias for Burnley, giving us advantage where there was none so that he didn’t have to book the Burnley players. They kept deliberately kicking our boys and fouling whenever they were unable to contain us. Dean just gave us the obvious fouls but never booked Burnley players.
His booking of Auba was after Burnley played a short ball and Auba intercepted the subsequent long pass. It was typical Dean making the game all about him. The short pass allowed Auba to get in closer & he should never have been booked.
VAR was just useless
Auba’s booking was annoying. As I understand it, failure to give 10 yards is an automatic yellow. BUT, it is never called! At worst, it is a warning. So…why give it now? Maybe Don or Walter can correct me.
Although every match has it’s own complexion. Thus, I am not expecting the Gunners to play to some of the inefficiencies which they have shown today as they play in the PL at home against Burnley today at the Ems. Emery should please work very had on the Arsenal 18 man Gunners team squad to correct all the inadequacies that are looking to be in the Gunners XI and have shown-out in the Burnley match today before they go to Liverpool FC next weekend to engage them in a battle to collect all the 3 points at stake in the match.
City robbed by VAR a ‘handball’ where it could easily be a penalty before the ball falls for Jesus who belts it into the goal. VAR is absolutely fu^king the game by being run by PGMOL.
From Tony’s point of view, the referee mediated, indirect match fixing is about penalizing a team who can compete with the team seeking assistance. To give a potentially golden boot scorer a yellow card can likely reduce his talley of goals over the season.
—
Liverpool’s (gift?) win
At 16/17 minutes, either Soton had a player hurt first, or both teams hurt at same time (1 minute apart in commentary). Soton came back quick, Liverpool more slowly. Sixteen minutes later, referee starts applying Soton handbrake by giving a yellow. Liverpool score in extra time of the first half. Liverpool score again about half way through the second half. Eight minutes later, Liverpool receive a yellow. Four minutes after that, Soton score (1-2 now). Within 1 minute, the referee applies more handbrake to Soton with another yellow. At 89 minutes, somehow a Soton player needs treatment and no foul or card to be seen for Liverpool. Game ends 1-2.
—
Man$ity 2 – Tottenspud 2
Fouls listed as 14:4, but only 1 card to Sterling of Man$ity. Shots listed as 7:2 and 7:1. Man$ity required a treatment late in the game, no apparent foul or card.
GoingGoingGooner
“Auba’s booking was annoying. As I understand it, failure to give 10 yards is an automatic yellow. BUT, it is never called! At worst, it is a warning.”
Exactly.
Again it’s just like last week. Yes, to the letter of the law it was a booking.
But why is ‘the letter of the law’ so often applied to us and not to others ?
Still, I’m sure it will all even out in the end.
VAR messing up again in the Man City Spurs game. Well, not VAR itself, but the guy who is operating it.
He sees the merest handball to disallow a City goal.
Yet manages to miss a blatant penalty for City in the first half.
Now I’m not saying either were that easy to see in real time but both were as clear as each other on replay, yet he manages to see one and not the other.
Pathetic.
Santi Ceballos!!!! (No higher praise).
P/A/L upfront.
Hector and KT to come into the defensive options.
Luiz to bring some Brazilian flair and to keep the fans on the edge of their seats.
Le Boss++ pulling the strings on the sideline
Haven’t been as excited about an Arsenal squad in years.
Herr Klopp might just be a tad nervous this week then bring on de Spuds.
A good day to be of The Arsenal.
Sean Dyche being quoted by Metro:
Hey Sean, how about a sport where one team knows that they will be allowed to cheat pretty much all game long, and very few (possibly none) of these events penalised? Welcome to PGMO football.
And yet, you come to Emirates Stadium and have your players cheat all game long, and you bitch about losing. If you are so high and mighty, you should tell your team to NOT CHEAT!
‘Have you ever thought about that? I don’t know any sport where they tell you that you can cheat once a game.’
The guys talking out of his backside.
Every single foul is cheating. Deliberate hand ball is cheating. Time wasting is cheating. Yes, diving is cheating.
So what is he trying to say? That everything he classes as ‘cheating’ is what? A red card?
Or just the cheating HE doesn’t like?
Of course nobody likes diving but as I’ve said many times it’s never going to end a players career, and given the types of tackle that go unpunished, and worse get defended, I’d much rather Dyche got his knickers in a twist about them.
But as usual, the media will allow him to make something out of nothing because it’s us.
I don’t think Burnley were that bad, actually. I do question Mike Dean’s judgement, however. He did seem to tilt the field against us with phantom fouls (Ashley Barnes, I’m looking at you). As for Sean Dyche…he is getting a reputation as a whinger which is unfortunate because he seems to be a reasonable person. His game plan was to hoof it into the box and to be fair, given his squad, that is a reasonable way to get a result. I don’t think he set out to kick us off the park.
@nitram It is amazing that none of the football journalists are talking about the poor use of VAR in the premier league. Me – I am not surprised one bit – either about the non discussion or it being used by PIGMOB to rubber stamp their poor officiating.
The only way that things will improve is if we get rid of PIGMOB and have a wholly transparent and accountable system – yes I know that is a pipe dream.
I have watched Bundesliga and La Liga for two years with VAR and they seem to have a much better grip on it.
You are also right in pointing out that every dive, foul, deliberate handball and time wasting is cheating.
The rule change I find the biggest non event is the one where players can leave the pitch at the nearest point – should save at most 30 seconds a game – Wow brilliant of you IFAB.
Meanwhile players take 50 seconds at every throw in, foul and goal kick – obviously that is allowed now because I never see any ref anywhere take action on these.
GoingGoingGooner
“His game plan was to hoof it into the box and to be fair, given his squad, that is a reasonable way to get a result.”
Agree. I haven’t really got an issue with that either. Or with teams that park the bus. They have to do what they have to do.
“He is getting a reputation as a whinger which is unfortunate because he seems to be a reasonable person.”
I agree.
But can I ask, does he whinge like this every week or is it just that he knows he’ll get away with it because it’s us.
I don’t know.
Obviously when it’s us I notice, but maybe he does whinge like this every week.
Dyche should really be complaining about thugs like his own Ashley Barnes who planted a knee in the back of Guendouzi and left him needing treatment. Incidents like that which could injure a player are the ones which should he should be talking about.
Some exciting and promising Football this Saturday from the Gunners! Pepe looks a bit lost still but he has shown flashes of brilliance. Luiz, who ?I never much rated seems to fit in well with Sokratis and is clearly a tall,cool head in the back 4. Auba and Laca did their thing and hopefully they can repeat their performances against Liverpool. Ceballos is definitely a winner and has the skills, like Cazorla did but also is young….lets hope we can keep him for more than a year long loan.Willock is growing in each game and when we have our injured return, as well as Xhaka and Ozil in form, we can expect to field an awesome bench and starting 11. I think we’ll have a tough time at Anfield and a draw would be very satisfactory. The Spuds seem a bit stronger this year but when they come to the HOF, they’ll meet a team that has really strengthened over the summer.
2 wins in a row for the first time in 10 years!
OT: Luiz
A Chel$ea blog has nice writeup on Luiz coming to Arsenal from Chel$ea.
https://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2019/8/17/20810102/different-ideas-david-luiz-explains-why-he-left-chelsea-for-arsenal
Not a lot of content, but the emotional level is very toned down.
OT: VAR
No they don’t! The EPL is 😈 Mike Riley’s private play toy, and the PGMO can do whatever they want because nobody can investigate them.
OT: FIFA laws and injuries
I gather a new IFAB/FIFA tweak, is an automatic red card for a tackle which targets the Achille’s tendon. And Modric was targetted by that change this last game day in Spain.
“I’m not that kind of boy” is how I read the explanation.
Managers, coaches and trainers need to quit teaching approaches of one player to another player; that have significantly higher probabilities of serious injury.
That Modric seemingly thinks there was nothing wrong; points to my suggestion that Modric be given an 80 game ban for that tackle. Maybe he will decide to give up football, and some people will learn to quite tackling that way?
Dyche was bitching about players going to ground. His players were kicking Gunners every tackle and occassionally the Arsenal player went down. Dean chose not to see the foul and ignored the player going down. There were several kicks on Ceballos and on Auba. Torreira got some as well. Dean didn’t see a thing nor did VAR.
The PGMOL run officiating in the EPL is a certain cheat fest that will make some group loadsa’money.
Todays game was a good sight of our youth & new players. Arsenal have a good mix providing we can avoid the injury that Dean type officiating allows.
Fergusons boys used to routinely give our players a kick in the calf/achilles making it look like they were making a challenge, often after the ball had gone. It is all the rage.
Again, as is my want, it’s not really what Dyche is saying but how he is allowed to say it, totally unchallenged, by a large part of the media, especially the written media.
Now to be fair to MOTD they did contradict him with a comment along the lines of:
“Yes, he has a point in general, but perhaps today isn’t the day as I didn’t see much diving going on”
Which is fair comment, but given had they agreed with him then surely they would of had to show some examples, which clearly they would not of been able to do, doing so would of been a little embarrasing.
On the other hand the written media do not have to substantiate his comments, so they can, and will give Dyche his platform to effectively accuse Arsenal players of ‘cheating’, without contradiction, therefore leaving Dyches comments as a statement of fact.
The reader is left with the uncontested impression that Arsenal yet again got away with cheating, which is exactly the impression they intend to leave the reader with.
Nitram Menace and the rest ..what a surprise calling the referees again..This site should be renamed Moaning about referees Arsenal.We won ,played ok and had 2 debutants who were exeptional today..
nick
Did you actually read my comment?
“……but then at the death, when he really could of screwed us by letting that off-the -ball incident go (and lets face it he could easily of not seen it nudge-nudge) he made a great call and stopped them in their (dangerous) tracks.
What to make of it?”
Why you continue to make yourself look so daft is beyond me.
nick
As I say either back up your accusations or shut up.
Back on the 12/08/2019 you said:
A good hard fought win and a clean sheet to boot. Well done Arsenal.” Some things never change on this site as sure as night follow day and they are that all the referees are against us and that
we would be better still under Wenger.
I subsequently said the following:
“And it’s ONE person who has said he thinks we’d be better off with Wenger. ONE.”
Then I asked:
“And show me one comment that says ALL referees are against us.
Please feel free to exaggerate make stuff up.
And if you’re not, be sure to list ALL the guys who’ve said ALL the referees are against us and
ALL the guys who’ve said we’d be better off with Wenger.
Shouldn’t take you long”
———-
Well it shouldn’t of took you long but alas you are yet to find me ONE poster saying ALL refs are against us, or name more the ONE poster saying we would be better off with Wenger.
Which brings me to your latest dig.
Where have I ever said Wenger is a God ?
Where have I ever said he was perfect ?
———–
You have singularly failed to back up a single accusation you have made yet here you are again.
Very odd.
nick
This from the creators of this blog:
160 games analysed
A summary of the research by the Referee Review team
It is commonplace for occasional visitors to Untold to write sarcastic comments about referees and our views thereon.
………..nick anyone?
The view, usually expressed very simply, and occasionally rather rudely, says “you always blame the refs when it is obvious to anyone that it is Wenger’s (or the players’) fault.”
………………..nick anyone?
In order to overcome this, over the years Untold has published a whole range of material about referees, using a wide range of analyses to consider how they have performed.
One of the biggest analyses undertaken was one in which all the weekend’s premier league matches were analysed each weekend, and the analysis was presented with video evidence to back up our claims.
This was an utterly enormous task, and it ran for 16 weeks – enough to iron out any local variations because of referee inexperience, adjusting to new nuances in the rules, and of course to take into account the possibility that it all evens out in the end. In short 160 games were analysed in depth, and the report showed on video exactly how and why our panel found errors where they did.
“But you are all Arsenal fans – you’re bound to find in Arsenal’s favour.”
As a preliminary to this research we ran Referee Decisions, a web site that analysed matches across the League using referees who had no association with Arsenal – but without video evidence. The results were the same, as you can see on the web site.
Now we’ve done it again and we have found similar results – this time with video evidence.
For anyone who still thinks all our evidence is biased, even after studying all the video evidence we can only suggest that you do some research of your own and present it against ours.
We did it – it is possible for a small group of interested people to do it. So you could do it as well.
””””’
Now this isn’t saying ALL the refs are wrong/biased ALL the time. But what it did show is that there is some serious issues with our referees, and there is a definite biased against Arsenal, as there is against certain other teams.
So go on nick, show us all how Tony, Blacksheep, Andrew and the rest are so wrong and how you are so right.
You haven’t been able to support anything else you’ve said so my hopes aren’t high.
And guess who’s already bottom of the ‘Fair play’ table?
Yep Arsenal.
20 fouls
5 cards
A card every 4 fouls.
Liverpool
15 fouls
0 cards
Watford
26 fouls
0 cards
Can you imagine us ever getting those kind of stats?
The average is a card every 11.0 fouls.
We are likely to get carded at almost 3 times the average.
As I’ve said on here many times, back in the early days of our trophy less period when I believe how we were refereed dramatically changed, I carried out this rudimentary type analysis over a number or years, taking the stats from the Suns weekly published Fair Play table.
Month after month, year after year we were refereed in this similarly harsh fashion.
At the time, over a number of years we averaged out at a card every 5.5 fouls. The average was 7.7.
Going into the infamous game 49 if I recall United were at around a foul every 15 fouls.
It is on the back of this feeling of being persecuted by the referees, aligned to the constant media abuse, that made finding Untold Arsenal such a joy.
Look, I know it’s not very scientific, but to have these figures repeat themselves year on year, over such a long period of time, clearly shows how we are judged to an exacting standard that others are not.
And still it goes on.
PS
I have looked for those simple stats (fouls/cards) for the entire history of the premier league, but I cant find them.
a) I like to support what I’m saying with evidence rather than just saying it.
b) I’ve always wanted to find the exact time when how we were refereed changed, because I’m sure there was nothing untoward in the early days of Wengers reign, at least not to any significant degree.
If anyone could help with those stats I’d very much appreciate it.
Nitram
Do not expect a response from the blinkered nick.
Further to your well constructed posts I believe that a couple of years ago stats were produced on Untold that showed that in addition to our poor cards to fouls ratio we were routinely carded much earlier in the games than most other teams. Of course this puts our players at a severe disadvantage for longer periods of the game than our less severely treated opponents.
My favourite by the PIGMOB is them letting the opposition commit several bad challenges with maybe a ticking off before bizarrely yellow carding the first Arsenal one as if the oppositions fouls counted as an add up for us.
I’ve had a look for the stats and all I could find that included the amount of fouls was on transfermarket.com but unfortunately the statistic for fouls only start in season 2014-2015.
Anyway I thought I’d have a look at what we have. I’ve done us and a team I’ve felt in recent seasons have seen the benefit of some lenient refereeing, Liverpool.
These are the stats:
ARSENAL
Showing:
Season, Fair Play position, points, Fouls, Our ratio, League ratio.
2014-2015 08th, Points = 75, Fouls = 353, Ratio = 4.70, League average = 5.00
2015-2016 01st, Points = 54, Fouls = 349, Ratio = 6.40, League average = 5.70
2016-2017 14th, Points = 83, Fouls = 391, Ratio = 4.70, League average = 5.40
2017-2018 12th, Points = 67, Fouls = 380, Ratio = 5.60, League average = 5.60
2018-2019 16th, Points = 79, Fouls = 404, Ratio = 5.11, League average = 7.10
Over the 5 seasons Arsenals ratio was a point/card every 5.2 fouls
LIVERPOOL
2014-2015 09th, Points = 75, Fouls = 357, Ratio = 4.70, League average = 5.00
2015-2016 07th, Points = 67, Fouls = 420, Ratio = 6.20, League average = 5.70
2016-2017 01st, Points = 54, Fouls = 388, Ratio = 7.10, League average = 5.40
2017-2018 01st, Points = 49, Fouls = 332, Ratio = 6.70, League average = 5.60
2018-2019 01st, Points = 41, Fouls = 313, Ratio = 7.60, League average = 7.10
Over the 5 seasons Liverpools ratio was a point/card every 6.3 fouls.
The average for the league was a point/card every 5.3 fouls.
Points awarded as follows:
1 x Y = 1 Point
2 x y = 2 Points
1 x R = 2 Points
1 x Y + 1 x R = 3 Points
So what do I draw from this ?
Well firstly it seems overall referees are more strict full stop, with an average card per foul ratio of 5.3 where as back when I used to do this regularly it was around 7.7.
Secondly it seems our ratio of 5.2 is even worse than it used to be at around 5.5.
But at least we are now nearer the average which is something anyway, and I must say a bit of a surprise.
But being average, considering how weak and feeble, with no fight or aggression, we are supposed to be, is still not great. But, it could be worse.
As I thought, Liverpool are treated quite leniently, there average being a card every 6.3 fouls.
That might not seem much but that is around 15% more lenient than us, or put another way, 15 metres in a 100 Metre sprint. That’s a long way.
Liverpool, in 4 of the 5 seasons (the last 4 to be precise) have been treated better than average.
Arsenal have been treated worse than average in 4 of the last 5 seasons.
Conclusion.
We are still treated harshly by the referees being worse than average, but I have to admit it’s not as bad as I thought or indeed it used to be.
NB:
Also MickHazels comment regarded WHEN the cards are issued is also relevant but would take hours and hours of work. Hours that I just haven’t got.
SheffieldU v CPalace
Nearing end of first half. CPalace have inflicted 2 treatments on Sheffield, the secon d requiring a substitution. No fouls or cards evident for this handiwork.
SheffieldU v CPalace
Into the second half. SheffieldU score. CPalace inflicts another treatment, again requiring the player to be substituted on SheffieldU. Referee sees no fouls or cards. The foul counter is 10:3 (10 to SheffieldU), and none of CPalaces 3 fouls are from inflicting treatments. Looks odd, fixed, biased. Business as usual at 😈 Mike Riley’s PGMO.
Can’t remember exactly but did the way Arsenal were refereed coincide with the leaving of David Dien ?
Or the arrival of Mike Riley as head of the PGMOL in 2008ish
Steve Vallins Mandy Dodd
Indeed Mandy I believe somebody did an analysis on UA that showed it changed when Riley took over at the PGMO. Cant swear on it but maybe someone could point us in the direction of that particular article.
Also if someone could point us in the direction of analysis MickHazel referred to regarding the time in the match we received our bookings. I remember it being done but I have no idea when.
Seeing when, indeed if there was a specific time when how we were refereed changed is one of the reasons I would love to do a complete analysis from the beginning of the PL just using the rudimental cards to fouls figures I used above.
Yes, remember a few articles on UA about the Riley effect Nitram, not least a sudden big increase in negative penalty balances at the end of most seasons since 2008, to a level unique amongst the top clubs.
Think we all know what Riley does, who put him there, and for what reason.
Just interested to see if there is a change of fortune with a new regime, more dealings with certain agents, and the perception of some that Raul is a bit more in tune with the darker side of the game, and perhaps less passive to things than Ivan and co (but not Wenger who regularly let us know what he thought of the refereeing), but having seen Mike Deans performance Sat, dont see many hopeful signs
Of course 2008 is just a couple years later than Deins departure, and we know Dein fought the clubs cause, officials from other clubs might say to a fault. Not sure he would have been so willing to put up with things that went on after his departure from the PGMOL without some sort of challenge, which as far as we know never came from the more policically pragmatic Ivan G.
Yes Mandy that was it I’m sure. Penalties.
Somebody did an analysis comparing Ourselves, United, city, Chelsea and Liverpool I believe.
The theory being that 5 teams of similar quality, with similar statistics such as ball possession, territorial dominance, time spent in the oppositions box, time spent in your own box, should receive and concede a similar amount of penalties both for and against.
Yes of course you get anomalous games, even seasons, but if you take these stats over a period of say 5 to 10 seasons then that should give a true reflection of what’s going on.
I believe whoever did the analysis covered quite a few seasons.
I just want to return to Dyches unsubstantiated rant (that’s what it would of been called had our manager said what he did) accusing us of diving.
Earlier in the thread I said:
“Of course nobody likes diving but as I’ve said many times it’s never going to end a players career, and given the types of tackle that go unpunished, and worse get defended, I’d much rather Dyche got his knickers in a twist about them.
But as usual, the media will allow him to make something out of nothing because it’s us.”
And so it seems to have turned out.
I don’t read the media as a rule but thought I’d have a look around to see if his false accusations were allowed to go unchallenged, in other words allowing the casual reader to believe everything he said about Arsenal players diving was true, and guess what ?
The only slight contradiction was this on the SKY web site which said:
“Ironically, Arsenal took an early lead in the game when a determined Alexandre Lacazette stayed on his feet to bustle through several defenders and score.”
Or put another way he scored despite Dyches cheating defender trying to pull him to the ground.
But everywhere else his rant has just been repeated verbatim without a word of contradiction.
Unless someone can show me otherwise of course?
Dermot Gallagher defending the indefensible on SKY.
It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so worrying.
The referees were foul before Rileys appointment. Remember the 50th, he was doing his ‘finals’ for the position. The 3 most foul were Wiley, Riley & Bennet.
The last of the ‘good’ referees was before the creation of the PGMOL.
As much as Dein loved Arsenal and football, he also loved the money. He sold out to Red & White.
Danny was a true Arsenal fan. Sadly his legacy was also a sell out.
Nick’s God, Wenger (Dein was key in his appointment), truly transformed Arsenal into a healthy sporting establishment with good financial credentials. This was despite the PGMOL’s biased agenda. Wenger’s arrival in English football also kicked off the growth in International TV hunger. The tika taka footballof Barcelona & Ajax had arrived in England. Leeds had introduced the flamboyancy some 12 years earlier but kicked most of that out of the sporting arena.
Todays Arsenal is thanks to the immediate history & Deins love of the game.
No stats here, just some old memories (which may be taken with more than a pinch of salt)
The 2001 FA Cup final was has always left a nagging feeling of injustice with me. I think everyone in the stadium (and on TV) saw the Henchoz hand-ball. I can’t remember any other bad decisions by the referee in this game, so maybe it was an hones mistake.
I also seem to remember a sequence of games in early 2003 beginning at an away match against Bolton, where the ref (Andy D’Urso?) let them kick us off the park, quite literally.
I just found a report of the game in the Guardian, and it contains a little gem from Allardyce regarding the approaching unbeaten season
Would you like custard with that humble pie, Sir