14 Replies to “Everton v Arsenal: the battle of the fallen”

1. So, all we’re waiting for now is for the Guardian to compliment Arsenal for signing their manager quickly and slate Everton for dithering…..and publicly apologise for actually having said vice versa. Breath holding not advised…….

2. It’s official

   https://www.arsenal.com/news/mikel-arteta-joining-our-new-head-coach

   Welcome (back) Mikel Arteta!

3. Arsenal have a good chance of all 3 points despite the injuries to several of our players. Hopefully Arteta will have sufficient influence to encourage some quality offensive (forward momentum) mentality. Our away supporters will be the catalyst to spur our team to a good result.

   COYG

4. Well, here is a perfect apology of rotational fouling….the more so that it is labelled as a ‘kind of purity’.
   Frankly, I wish there were a rule like in basketball, where after 5 fouls alltogether sanctions start pouring…

   But then, one can always dream…

   https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/dec/20/killing-transition-fouling-tottenham-wolves

   And this is what they call the beautifiul game ?!?!

5. Now that Mikel Arteta has been named as the Gunners head coach by Arsenal, what it remains now for us Gooners to see is what kind of senior team football coaching he’ll bring to the table at Arsenal for the Gunners to play that will be in stack contrast to the senior team football coaching that Unai Emery, the recently sacked Gunners head coach and Freddie Ljungberg, the will be outgoing Gunners interim head coach have brought to the table at Arsenal for the Gunners to play.

   Freddie Ljungberg to take charge of Arsenal match away to Everton tomorrow Saturday in the PL? And Mikel Arteta will be in the stands to watch the match? But will his watching the match in the stands bring to the Gunners in their performance in the match? Will his presence in the stands watching the Gunners playing motivate them to positively performed in the game and win the match for Arsenal? And who is going to select the 18 man Gunners matchday squad for the match? Freddie Ljungberg who has now known his fate regarding any ambition and hopes he might have nursed if at all he has nursed any to get the Gunners head coach job is refused him? But why should Freddie be in the Arsenal dogout as the Gunners head coach for the match when a new head coach for the Gunners has been named more than 24 hours before the match is played? If I were Freddie who has his prematch press conference for the match away to Everton cancelled, I’ll say thank you to the Arsenal hierarchy bosses for their generosity to me for when it has lasted. But I am okay and I preferred not to be in the dogout for the match instead let Arteta takes charge of the team for the match. Thank you once again I am grateful.

   But Ljungberg cannot say this to the club’s hierarchy bosses because they gave the chance to coach Gunners but his teams lost twice at home in the PL to Brighton and Man City. But had it being he coached the Gunners to win these 2 PL matches to make them 3 he has coached the Gunners to including their away match to West Ham that they won, the bosses at Arsenal would have considered leaving him to continue in his role as interim head coach for the Gunners for the time being and they would not have pursued the appointment of Arteta for the Gunners head coach now, but they’ll continue to wait to see how Ljungberg will fare for Arsenal in obtaining results in matches for the club. Anyway, Freddie Ljungberg has not cried for missing out on the Arsenal head coach job appointment. But I am the one who is crying for him because I want him for his positive football playing heydays for Arsenal to get the Gunners head coach job.

6. @ Chris
   Regarding the Guardian article about rotational fouling , as it stated it’s been going on for years . Liverpool in the Sounes era we’re masters at it .
   Spectators , journalist and players can see rotational fouling during any game but no matter who the referee is they can’t do a thing if it’s done properly , a different player every time .
   If these fouls are petty and stop the flow of the game and say done by 10 different players what is in the laws of the game can the referee do ? To glorify rotational fouling is wrong but seems to be accepted within the game , no newspaper article mentioned the cynical way Man City sorted out Martinelli along with any likely break away we may have had .

7. Steve, I believe the laws of the game allow for the referee to stop it.

   When the referee decides enough is enough (at a stoppage), the referee calls over the captain and instructs him to stop his/her team from rotational fouling. If the rotational fouling continues, the referee yellow cards the captain for unsportsmanlike conduct. If the rotational fouling continues, the referee shows the captain a second yellow, and dismisses the captain. At which point, someone else on the field takes the captain’s armband. And the referee should point out at the time of the armband transfer, that this new captain has now been warned about further rotational fouling.

8. @Gord as you said earlier I like the basketball rule 5 team fouls and you give up a free throw. 5 personal fouls – excluded from the game.

   Cant see soccer moving into the 16th century let alone the 21st.

   I have NEVER, and I am 62, ever seen a ref stop rotational fouling – in fact they encourage it by not booking players.

   Best quote of the last couple of weeks is Ian Holloway blaming the EU for VAR! Hard to believe TV stations pick him as an expert, or maybe that explains why!

9. @Steve,

   well what can be done is like in basketball for example. After a team commits 4 fouls, a freethrow,and then each foul goes to freethrow.
   That could be adapted.

   That would make it more costly. After 5 fouls, a penalty ? Whatever to helps to make it costly, rather then what it is today : a free card to destroy any team.

   And I am sure that if Arsenal were to be doing that, the story on the Guardian would be about how scandalous they are doing this despicable thing.

10. @ Gord
    Thanks for your response , if this happened it would be wonderful but it has never happened or likely to happen no referee has got the b###s to do it and I suspect he’d have to prove it was for rotational fouling , because I’m sure an appeal would happen and don’t forget this is subjective in interpretation

11. How things have changed , I played at not a bad level of football a season in the old Athenian League , the tackle has changed , no going through the back and no taking the ball and man .
    If you got whacked and hurt you’d never go down and show you’ve been hurt it was like saying is that all you’ve got , players today only have to be looked at and they rolling on the turf .

12. At the moment, fouls are just counted (at least as far as the data I see). But, the data as to which player commits fouls is gathered, because that is something that various places with money to spend on buying statistics report. And I suspect that organizations do spend on who gets fouled, because I think that gets reported once in a while.

    So, keeping track of who fouls whom is already something which is gathered. That is not subjective. What else is needed to book a captain for unsportsmanlike conduct due to rotational fouling?

13. A problem is that referees observe fouls being committed, and do not call them. A related problem is that referees call fouls that never happened.

    But neither of those should get in the way of a referee booking a captain for unsportsmanlike conduct.

14. The way referees approach to fouling has been questionable (to say the least) for decades. I remember quite clearly a few years back that the golden boy of football at the time, England Captain, Alan Shearer went two whole seasons without picking up a card. In both those seasons he committed the most fouls of any player in the league. Nobody batted an eyelid because the media loved Alan Shearer. Or Alan ‘the elbow’ Shearer as he was known to many fans! It may not have been done for money or to assist Newcastle to win the league but still it was allowed to happen with the tacit compliance of referees at that time.