Crystal Palace v Arsenal: injuries, teams, wild vacuous newspaper fantasies, yellow percentages

Posted on by Tony Attwood

By Bulldog Drummond

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Driving home on Thursday night I heard the headline news on BBC Radio 4 that there was trouble at the Palace.  Curiously there didn’t seem to be any mention of football at all, and it all seemed to be about highly privileged people who are funded by the UK taxpayer not being happy with their lot and wanting to move to the Dominions.

So casting that aside here are the injury details ahead of the Palace game:

Player Reason Further Detail Potential Return
Calum Chambers Knee Injury Out for the season 29/08/2020
Kieran Tierney Shoulder Injury Out until April 14/03/2020
Hector Bellerin Thigh Injury Hamstring Strain  25% chance of playing 18/01/2020
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Illness Was reported ill on 6 January.  Now seems fine. 11/01/2020

Fortunately we have Maitland-Niles seemingly growing in strength, who can cover on one side, the return of Holding in the middle and Kolasinac on the left.

Beyond the injuries we do have some positives… including quite amazingly being unbeaten in five away matches in all competitions since the departure of Unai Emery.  Which sounds great, except four of these were draws.

And because we have been looking at yellow cards of late here they are

Crystal Palace 32 yellows and one red from 227 fouls – one every 7.09 fouls

Arsenal 52 yellows and one red from 222 fouls – one every 4.27 fouls.

Put another way the fouls are much the same but Arsenal are 62% more likely to get a yellow after a foul than Crystal Palace.

Anyway, the last time we were this low in the league after this many games was 1982.

Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Liverpool 21 13 5 3 50 19 31 44
2 Nottingham Forest 21 12 2 7 38 30 8 38
3 Watford 21 11 3 7 39 24 15 36
4 Manchester United 21 10 6 5 28 17 11 36
5 West Ham United 21 11 1 9 37 32 5 34
6 Coventry City 22 10 4 8 30 28 2 34
7 Aston Villa 21 10 2 9 31 28 3 32
8 West Bromwich Albion 21 9 4 8 34 32 2 31
9 Manchester City 21 9 4 8 27 32 -5 31
10 Tottenham Hotspur 21 9 3 9 32 29 3 30
11 Everton 21 8 5 8 35 28 7 29
12 Southampton 21 8 5 8 27 34 -7 29
13 Ipswich Town 22 7 7 8 35 28 7 28
14 Notts County 21 8 4 9 30 36 -6 28
15 Stoke City 21 8 3 10 33 35 -2 27
16 Arsenal 21 7 6 8 25 28 -3 27

Arsenal actually finished the league in 10th, after three seasons in the top four reaching the semi-final of both cups.  Tony Woodcock was the top scorer.

This was a period of seven years without a trophy between winning the FA Cup in 1979 and winning the league cup in 1987.

It is interesting to look at how many teams in the top division now were still around then.  The 2nd, 6th and 8th team as well as the three just above Arsenal, have all slipped away.  Notts County are no longer in the Football League.

Anyway, a win at Palace would be three in a row – the first time since September.  A clean sheet would mean four cleans in six.  But we have only won one of the last 10 games against teams in the top 10 in the league.

Fortunately Aubameyang is expected to play as he has got eight of our 11 away goals.

Sportsmole give us

Leno;

Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Luiz, Kolasinac;

Torreira, Xhaka;

Pepe, Ozil, Aubameyang;

Lacazette

which looks rather likely to me.

The Daily Excess however has a variation at right back with

Leno;

Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Luiz, Saka

Xhaka;, Torreira

Pepe, Ozil, Aubameyang;

Lacazette

 

The Evening Standard is however up to its old tricks again – which is a polite way of saying that it is being deliberately misleading.   The headline reads “Arsenal XI vs Crystal Palace: Confirmed team news” but after that goes on to talk about a “predicted lineup”.

The following article contains phrases such as “Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is expected to recall Lucas Torreira and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang”  (my emphasis), and again “Aubameyang should return to form part of a front four that also contains Alexandre Lacazette, Mesut Ozil and Nicolas Pepe”

They then tell us that “Reiss Nelson is pushing to start after scoring the winner against Leeds.”

Now this is all under a headline that read “Confirmed team news”, so we keep on waiting and looking and looking and waiting.  Where is the “confirmed team news”?

“In defence, Hector Bellerin is likely to still be short on fitness as he recovers from a hamstring injury,” is the next section followed by “As a result, Ainsley Maitland-Niles should start at right-back”.

So still no confirmed – not even in the mind (if there is one) of the newspaper’s “journalist” Simon Collings although he does sound a lot more certain when he says, “In goal, Bernd Leno will take back his place after Emiliano Martinez started and kept a clean sheet against Leeds.”

Finally, Squwaka are out on their own with

Leno;

Maitland-Niles, Mustafi, Luiz, Kolasinac;

Torreira, Xhaka;

Pepe, Ozil, Aubameyang;

Lacazette.

 

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97 Replies to “Crystal Palace v Arsenal: injuries, teams, wild vacuous newspaper fantasies, yellow percentages”

  1. Time to join in with the hype – Arteta has decided to play the under sixteen squad against Crystal Palace. It should get Arsenal below the radar and get us another victory.

    It is also a way of avoiding the Yellow peril that seems to haunt our senior squad.

    Riley has pre ordered junior burgers & chips for the Stockley park celebration that has assured him of victory in the Far East gaming markets.

    A the US media have reported ‘We have a VAR on our hands’.

  2. Commentary only mentioning Xhaka issue from previous match but not a murmer of the robbed Sokratis goal.

    Same team selection as Man U game.

  3. Super passing sequence till Laca puts the ball through to Auba and he scores with the deftest touch. 0-1 to the Arsenal and the PGMOL boy still doing his biased vision.

    VAR not involved so 4th official ordering new buns & unwilling to talk to Arteta after an unseen foul on the side line.

  4. PGMOL assistant flags Auba offside when he is a good yard onside. VAR does nothing when the officials get it wrong despite the rule that they should not flag uncertaing fouls.

    Ooooops this is Arsenal so the Riley Laws for Chinese New Year come into play.

  5. Red card ofence by Ayiew on Torreira but no VAR check. The referee does not see a booking either. What a corrupt bunch of select northern English officials. A stamp followed by a kick. The fans singing FUCK VAR but perhaps FUCK RILEY would be preferable!

  6. The fouling is so blatant and obvious!! Saha pushes Pepe in the back and he gets in Torreiras way and hurts his back as he falls.

    The official has really got his Riley book of Laws out. The cheating bastards need to be jailed for corrupt behaviour.

  8. CP constantly fouling the Arsenal players, particularly Torreira… and still not a yellow.
    Would bet the first yellow card will be shown to a Gunner !

  9. Broken nose Townsend says Palace are getting in their faces!! What a turd for a commentator. He sees the fouling that should have drawn several cards including at least 2 reds. PGMOL at their obvious most corrupt with the commentator’s select vision supporting the corrupt.

  11. Daily Mail says the double treatment had nothing to do with Zaha. I don’t know about other sources yet. I see Tierney found his cards, we get the first card (of course). Dork.

    COYG!

  12. Pepe gets a yellow card for being fouled by McCarthy. It is so damned crooked this EPL it is shameful.

    VAR is still munching burgers and hasn’t picked up the dirty Palace fouling.

    The ref calls play to a stop with Arsenal in an attacking position – unusual but then it’s Arsenal so that’s how to stop them.

  13. Saddly, I see that I was right about predicting the first yellow.

    @Gord, at the moment, I could see the same as you saw about the double treatment. Clearly a Zaha push. But the ref (nor the var) could see it… How strange! 🙂

  14. pépé only player yellowed
    ayew had at least four bookable fouls to himself before that (lucas 07′, xhaka 08′ and 15′, lucas again (22′)- not to mention tomkins (kola 36′)
    thanks tierney for going to such lengths to prove untold’s point

  15. Gord the push by Zaha was close to a red card offence as he made no play for the ball but attempted to injure an opponent.

    McCarthy fouled Pepe and then held Pepe’s left knee, stopping him from moving it was so damned obvious but Tierney without seeing anything books Pepe. It should have been a red card to McCarthy for attempting to break an opponents knee.

    Andy Townsend is so damned jealous of Arsenals success he ignores the red card offences. Townsend should be done for bringing the game into disrepute.

  16. Daily Mail coverage notes that it took CPalace to 41m to get a shot on net, says nothing about shots for Arsenal that I can see. Fo.Lo says that Zaha pushed Torreira into Pepe. Says nothing aout a foul. Telegraph noticed the push as well, also says nothing about a foul. Mirror sees nothing. Many places have talked about Kolasinac needing a treatment, but my usual source said nothing. BBC notes more about the 3 treatments, but also says nothing about Zaha’s push being a foul.

    And the Chinese commentator is saying Mmmmm, mm, mmmmmmmm, m, m, m.

    COYG!

  17. I have counted 5 fouls by Ayew alone, one of which warranted a yellow card on its own. How many fouls do you need to commit before being booked for persistent fouling?
    Can anyone tell me why Pepe was booked?

  18. Palace fouling has included stamping on the foot & then deliberately raking the leg with studs. VAR????? what a fucking sham. The bastards that man the screens in Stockley Park need to be recorded as they must be plotting a method of gifting this game to Palace just like they did the last one.

    Guendouzi is on for Toreira as Lucas is injured – surprising Andy saw it and comments on that little knock on his ankle while the other goon says it is after the heavy fall he took following Sahas push.

  19. Palace players go down and get an instant foul from Tierney!! What a shower of shit these PGMOL officials are.

  20. Mick, a french journalist on Eurosport says “Pepe yellow, seemingly for a foul on a Palace player. The “seemingly” sys it all!

    About the double treatment, the same write : “The collision between Pépé and Torreira after the first was slightly pushed by Zaha. The game is stopped and the two Gunners are treated.”

  24. The initial pass was offside but VAR doesn’t see it!!! And Ayew who should be in the bath with a red card scores. What an absolute bunch of cheats.

  25. That one started with an offside, should not there be VAR check ?!?! I mean if we were in a perfect world with PIGMOB actually following IFAB rules

  26. Fouls are 10:13, and yellows are 0:2. Tierney you are a turd. And now CPalace score to bring the game to a draw.

    Get that lead back Gunners!

    And the Chinese commentator is saying Mmmmm, mm, mmmmmmmm, m, m, m.

    COYG!

  28. Pepe’s card was for a stamp. According to one medja idjut.

    And the Chinese commentator is saying Mmmmm, mm, mmmmmmmm, m, m, m, mmmmmmm.

    COYG!

  29. @Menace,

    To me it was a much clearer offside then many who were given for a hair’s breadth…. and Tv showed it only once… not surprised there… the fact that there was no VAR check makes no sense unless you admit they do NOT want to check it. Otherwise why did they check many other goals this season ?

  30. just put stream on and saw the offside same shit diffrent day again with the rotation fouling

  33. FrankA apparently was mildly offside except when its aresnal its a pixel offside its off

  34. Another card for Arsenal. Fouls are 10:16 and cards are 0:3.

    And the Chinese commentator is saying Mmmmm, mm, mmmmmmmm, m, m, m, mmmmmmm.

    COYG!

  36. Crystal dive master class, fuck you VAR if that was a red for aumbama this is taking the piss thats why I stopped watching for a while just pisses me off

  37. I can’t see how VAR can overturn a yellow that was seen by the referee and turn it into a red…unbelievable.

  38. VAR cooking the books and Auba is being RED carded for an offence far less dangerous than Ayew’s several fouls.

  40. CPalace needs a treatment, and Aubameyang gets a straight red? And what happened to the third yellow Arsenal had? CPalace player needed to be substituted.

    COYG!

  41. The puppet/muppet commentators have been ignoring Palace fouls calling them getting in the face of Arsenal players and then they wet themselves over this.

  43. This red card is a shame, considering the preceding fouls from the Palace players! Where was the var then! What an awful officiating!

  44. that should be a red card on Marty reckless from behind didn’t get the ball fucking double standards

  45. The PGMOL now gets his yellow out for McCarthy. Typical late show of the yellow just to make it look like he is fair.

  48. The commentator says Palace with an extra man should be playing better!! The thing is they were playing with 5 extra men before the Red card and are now with 6 extra men including the PGMOL crew.

  49. Va Cong – the officials should be jailed for pretending to be fair and honest. They stink worse than sewers.

  50. The fucking VAR official is Pawson the whore. His verdict without second viewing is just another cheat. The commentators and the EPL are shamelessly corrupt.

  51. Fouls now 13:19, and cards are 2:3(1 red). EPL the most corrupt football league in the world. PGMO the most corrupt officials in the world. The (sweet) FA, the most useless FA in the world. What a group!

    COYG!

  54. Gord…what the official stats don’t show is that what was a foul for Arsenal was not a foul for Palace and what was a yellow for Arsenal was not a yellow for Palace. Every 50/50 call seemed to go Palace’s way.

  55. Hello Gents,

    In respect to Davids [I think] article in which he refers to a “totting up” of the fouls, I did some totting up fr the Crystal Palace vs Arsenal game:

    Fouls:

    Crystal Palace
    Ayew: ||||
    Zaha: |
    Tomkins: ||=Yellow 84th minute
    Kouyate: |
    McArthur: |
    McCarthy: |

    Arsenal
    Kolasinac: |||
    Sokratis: |||
    Lacazette: |||||=Yellow 89th minute
    Pepe: |=Yellow, 44th minute
    Maitland-Nles: |=Yellow, 51st minute
    Aubemeyang: |=Red 66th minute
    Xhaka: |

    NB: No VAR [Craig Pawson] check for offside against Crystal Palace fo the 54th minute goal and no replays of the “offside” after the goal was scored.

    No VAR check for Tomkins: foul in the 84th minute and no replays by the broadcaster

    As a “neutral” and reasonably objective man, I’d say Arsenal were not refereed with the same consistency as Crystal Palace. The most obvious example of this was the awarding of a yellow to Crystal Palace with no VAR review and the inverse to Arsenal.

    Same old Arsenal, always cheating?

  56. The game ends with CPalace kicking Arsenal (Sokratis down), and Sargent Tierney Schultz sees NOTHING.

    The EPL, PGMO and The (sweet) FA can be proud of that manipulation of a sporting game. They should all be flogged.

  57. So, refereeing aside, how did we play?

    Defensively, I thought we were OK. Their goal was unlucky – a deflection. The boys put a shift in so effort was not a problem. I would say that our transition needs work; it is too slow and too many of our passes in the final third went astray. Even at the death we had a 1/2 chance but we couldn’t deliver a reasonable through ball.

    1-1 was a reasonable outcome despite the machinations of the referee.

  58. Personally I haven’t got a problem with the red. It was late and caught the player badly. Don’t think it was malicious but if you come in like that and miss the ball, and get the player, a red is usually the outcome, for us at least. And that’s the problem.

    As I said years ago, as far as I was concerned all VAR would be used for would be to pick up on anything missed against us but ignored if it should of gone for us, and that proves to be the case time after time after time.

    How did Palace get to 70 minutes without a yellow ?

    As for us…small steps.

    COYG

  59. PGMOL’s Tierney & Pawson are due a bonus for playing suberbly for Palace. Ayew stamped on the foot so many times it puts the Royal Mail to shame. Tierney ignored so many Palace fouls that it becaomes easy to understand why Prince Harry wants to step out.

    Sky the broadcaster owned by Rupert are just as corrupt as pigmob. They show what they want and create a false image for the punter. The pundits are also in the same boat. Andy Townsend the blatant biased twat also subscribes to the same corrupt agenda. It was pretty obvious that as soon as Arsenal scored the free for all of tackle abuse began. Tierney allowed no end of nasty vicious fouls to go unchecked. VAR was invisible in the most clear & obvious way.

    There will be a report at some stage when all this will be acknowledged but then nothing will change because of it.

    Ian Wright seems to be drugged to not see the obvious chaeting that is going on.

  60. Any contact or challenge, the foul goes in favor of Palace. Elbow in the face of Kola (1rst half), in the face of Sokratis, a gunner beeing held back from action by the leg, Ayew constantly fouling … No VAR. Totaly absurd and biased refereeing!
    Anyway, even down at 10 men, the team played as a team. Encouraging.
    COYG!

  61. Speaking of corruption, Infantino has become a board member of that feed trough known as the IOC.

  62. To be honest I believe Auba’s foul was a red card so I have no complaint, however the refs are so inconsistent and bias against Arsenal it’s beyond a joke. All I want to see from the ref is consistency in their decision making, it can’t be that hard.

    Unlucky today with Pepe’s shot hitting the post, but team should be proud to have nearly won the match with one less player. On to the next match.

  64. Nitram, I agree about Auba’s red. The foul is dangerous, even if it was obviously not intentional, but due to a lack of control.
    As you say, what is appalling is to see that the Var should have been used BEFORE, several times, to punish Palace faults. And it hasn’t been done. What other conclusion can be drawn but that the arbitration is at best incompetent, at worst biased…

  66. @GGG
    “Without the machinations of the referee”,
    Seriously, the referee decided this game to the fullest. Until an Arsenal manager is prepared to take the team off to make a point about how the team is refereed and also about referees appointed to Arsenal matches, then nothing is going to change and the FA/PGMOL will continue to get away with their actions with regards to match fixing and picking who wins what and where teams finished in the league, qualifying for the champions league and benefiting from the massive financial rewards in playing in the Champion League.

    I think it’s about time that UEFA started to ask questions regarding the credibility of the teams which the FA/Premier League put forward to compete in there competitions as this is clearly what is happening.
    Very serious questions needs to be asked about how the same referee that was involved in our very last premier league match again Man United as a VAR referee is then appointed as the referee for our very next game.

    So far this season, Paul Tierney appointments are; refereed 3 matches and VAR referee in 3 matches as well.
    Refereed Loss to Man City 0-3, 2 -2 draw away to Norwich and now this 1 -1 away draw again to Crystal palace.
    VAR Referee for 1-1 home draw against Wolves, 2-2 draw away to Spurs and our 2-0 win against Man United.

  67. Kenward Garg
    Ayew actually committed seven fouls during the game, the most any player has done this season without getting a yellow card for persistent offending.
    That’s another ‘first’ for Arsenal.
    You name any undesirable refereeing stat be it cards, penalties or whatever and you can bet Arsenal will be right up there with the leaders.
    I expect Dr Deb will have a plausible medical explanation for todays ref, like all before him, suffering selective blindness.

  68. ESPN (worldwide leader in being ESPN), seems to have misquoted:

    “We’re frustrated not to get the win, but in the first half they were very good,” Palace defender Gary Cahill told BT Sport.

    “It was difficult to deal with their pace and movement. When we got to grips with the game we did well. We’re doing OK, but we need to keep pushing and keep working hard.”

    What the quote should have been:

    “We’re frustrated not to get the win, but in the first half they were very good,” Palace defender Gary Cahill told BT Sport.

    “It was difficult to deal with their pace and movement. When we got to grips with the game and remembered that the officials would allow just about any sort of violence against Arsenal we did well. We’re doing OK, but we need to keep kicking, punching, elbowing and stamping.”

  69. OT: Chel$ea 3 0 Burnley

    Chel$ea get given a penalty to start them off, and the cards are 0:3 with fouls of 7:4. Friend is the PGMO twit. Chel$ea must have inflicted a treatment on Chris Wood, and typically Sargent Friend Schultz sees NOTHING! Chris Wood again needs a treatment at 36m, and while he is off, Chel$ea score again. Sargent Schultz sees NOTHING. Burnley have another player down for treatment, and no foul or card evident.

    Games ends with 7:4 for fouls.

    OT: Leicester 1 2 Southampton

    Cards are 0:3, fouls are 8:14. Mason is the twit for PGMO. Southampton inflict a treatment diver Vardy at 21m. Leicester inflict a treatment at 59m.

    OT: ManUre 4 0 Norwich

    No cards, fouls are 18:7. Fouls are 18, and no cards? Taylor is the twit for PGMO. Didn’t Taylor just recently do another ManUre game? Second goal to ManUre assisted by Taylor (penalty). ManUre inflict a treatment on Norwich at 58m, Sargent Taylor Schultz sees NOTHING! ManUre inflict another treatment 79m, which requires a substitution. Sargent Schultz sees nothing.

    Yet to come, the spuds at home to LiVARpool.

  71. OT: Spuds 0 0 LiVARpool!!

    10 minutes into game. Only 1 fouls so far, buy the spuds. EPL; the best officiating money can buy.

  72. OT: Spuds 0 0 LiVARpool!!

    23 minutes in, LiVARpool! get their first foul, and its a yellow.

  73. OT: Spuds 0 0 LiVARpool!!

    32m in and LiVARpool inflict a treatment on the spuds. Atkinson called a foul on this, so at 32 m the fouls are 1:2 and the cards are 0:1.

  74. OT: Spuds 0 1 LiVARpool!!

    40m in, and the fouls are still just 1:2. Liverpool have just scored. Breaking news, LiVARpool have fouled again, and it is another card (to the Ox).

    EPL, because nobody needs to know what the rules are.

  75. Joe Cole was in the news, telling Arteta what to do. He became a player for the Tampa Bay Rowdies (boy, won’t that name strike fear into the opposition?) and then in 2018 was named assistant player coach. He has a whopping 5.5 months of experience as management, and he is telling Arteta what to do. He must be a genius.

    Sort of like Atkinson for the PGMO. Or Dean. Or Taylor.

  76. OT: Spuds 0 1 LiVARpool!

    60m in, and the spuds are still at 1 foul, which was the first foul of the game. Liverpool at 7 fouls. Still at 2 yellows.

    70m in, fouls are 1:8, and cards still 0:2. Dele Diver is playing for the spuds. It boggles the mind how the spuds can only be at 1 foul so far. That makes as much sense as 18 fouls for ManUre and no cards.

    80m in, and the spuds still glued to that 1 foul.

    83m, the spuds get their second foul. Mind you, they are still losing.

    85m, thespuds should be getting their 3rd foul, as liverpool got a free kick.

    90+1? the spuds get a 4th foul (4:8), and only the 2 yellows to Liverpool. Moahinho must be teaching them spuds to shoot, they have 4 on target to Liverpool’s 6.

  77. That was totally depressing. To watch that little mummy’s boy referee cock totally screw us over made me feel sick. Ayew committed more fouls than anyone in recent history without getting carded. Torreira was rotationally tackled, mainly by Ayew rotating and Pepe got booked for being tackled by two players at once.
    Once of the most dirty, twatt referee games I’ve ever seen.

    Take them to court, please! They are a filthy bunch of scum these refs.

  78. I get the bitching about the lack of yellows to Palace, but anyone bitching about the red is a hypocrite. If the shirts had been switched on that one, there would be no lack of complaining about the injustice if that hadn’t been given. That was a clear as day red.

    Aside from that, terrible performance by the referee. No complaints about that call though.

  79. The referee was appalling. Such incompetence. Ayew should have been sent off for multiple fouls. Yet “scores” the equaliser and Keown has the gall to make him MOTM. What a joke. Talk about a kick in the balls by one of your so called own. We should have put the game away in the first half but our game went to walking pace. Arteta must want us to play faster and with more tempo. Palace couldn’t get tired as they didn’t have to run too much. Our front three needs to play narrower and be more fluid. Look at Liverpool’s front three. They are the benchmark now. Got to beat Sheff Utd next week and take something from the Chelsea match too. The Sours will get worse and so will Utd but can we catch Chelsea?

  81. Auba’s tackle was careless, at most reckless, it was not using excessive force. It was a mistimed tackle from what was literally a standing position.

    IFAB Laws of the game 2018/19 states the following for; Careless, Reckless, using Excessive force.
    • Careless is when a player shows a lack of attention or consideration when making a challenge or acts without precaution. No disciplinary sanction is needed.

    • Reckless is when a player acts with disregard to the danger to, or consequences for, an opponent and must be cautioned.

    • Using excessive force is when a player exceeds the necessary use of force and/or endangers the safety of an opponent and must be sent off.

    Mistimed tackles happen all the time and does not result in a sending off, unless it’s an Arsenal player.

  82. Em

    That is interesting and if the laws of the game are as you stated I do believe Auba’s tackle falls under the first category. Not even a card.

    But I have to be honest here and say that personally I thought it was at an absolute minimum a yellow, but probably deserving of a red, and as Scuba suggests we have to hold our hands up here and say if one of ours was on the end of a tackle like that most of us here would of wanted the perpetrator sent off.

    But I think whether it was a red yellow or nothing is not really what’s got people riled, it’s the double standards the constantly seem to be applied to Arsenal, in comparison to most others.

    It seems by and large the letter of the law is applied to us far more often than to most others.

    AMN committed one foul, and that was as soft as you like, and got a yellow.

    But here’s the thing, I work within spitting distance of Palaces ground so obviously I work amongst a lot of their supports and the ones I spoke to yesterday think Palace were hard done by. Yep, hard done by.

    Apparently we are one of the worst in the PL for harassing the ref and David Luiz was lucky not to of at least been yellow carded for such behaviour.

    As for VAR, they obviously agreed with that and said it was amazing because they get nothing from VAR. To which I pointed out the VAR disallowed goal at the Em’s to which they said ‘well yeah that of course, but apart from that’ !

    For fear of going down the ‘what have the Romans ever done for us’ route, I left it at that.

  83. OT: Arsenal women away to Brighton and Hove

    Essentially half time, we are up 0-2. Van de Donk and Roord with the goals. Perhaps Andrew will tell us more?

    —–

    If Arsenal are one of the worst in the EPL for harassing the ref, I would say that Untold has done a wonderful job of showing why. Because we have to right to complain about the work done by the officials. It is part of supporting, to notice when the opposition is harassing the referee. It does become a bit much, for any supporter to say that in a particular incident, that the players harassing had the right to do so, _because_ they were hard done by. Few supporters go to the game, looking for all the times when their own players are fouling opposition.

  84. I would have liked Arteta to say in the post match media interview that he agreed Auba’s foul was a red card and that he expect the same decision when opponents do the same to his players. I would like him to put pressure on the refs to be consistent in their decision making.

  85. Aubameyang his tackle warranted a red card. He endangered the safety of his opponent and could have caused a serious injury. The fact he was taken off immediately showed that infact he got injured.
    But what the thing that stings of course is the fact that we know that it doesn’t happen when one of our players is hit like that.

  86. about not winning that was mostly down to us not pushing for a second goal in the first half. We dropped the tempo and that allowed Palace back in the match. That is something we should look at ourselves.
    We lost concentration for a few seconds and paid for it with the equaliser. That is our own error again.
    Good thing is that even with 10 man our players gave it all. We just need to keep the tempo higher over 90 minutes

  87. I think a good example of what Walter is talking about, is the first game of last season. Maitland-Niles had his leg broken by a Man$ity player and not even a foul was called.

    Just another treatment to ignore by the PGMO.

    Perhaps that isn’t a good example, and someone has a better one?

    —-

    Second half starting with the women.

    COYWG!

  88. Full time with the women. 0-4. Vivienne Miedema had a good chance right at the final whistle I gather.

    Congratulations!

    Chel$ea gave up an early goal in their later kickoff, but have tied it up. Man$ity won their game.

  89. @WalterBroeckx
    I do not understand how you think Auba’s tackle was a red card? Tackle was not from behind, he was not in the air lunging out of control at the player, and he did not come in at full speed out of control at the player. Tackle was made from a standing still position and he made YES a nasty contact but this surely does not mean it’s a red card offence.

    • Using excessive force is when a player exceeds the necessary use of force and/or endangers the safety of an opponent and must be sent off.

    Are you saying that every player that kicks his/her opponent on the leg/shine should automatically be red carded?

    The referee was right there and saw the tackle/contact hence the reason why he issued the yellow card immediately. I seriously do not believe that the referee requested for a review of the incident in line with the VAR Protocols.

    You said the player was injured and came off, I advise you go back and look at the whole incident again and you will notice that the player was about to get up and was told by the medical staff to wait (sure it was to do with waiting until the VAR decision had been made). It was as clear as day that they were trying to influence the review outcome and was taken off to support it.

    Arsenal need to challenge the Red Card awarded even if it’s only out of principle to highlight the double standards by FA. The Spurs ‘SON’ red card which was rescinded is a clear example as what should have been deemed and was deemed by the PGMOL as endangering the safety of an opponent and in fact did injury the opponent, however, it was still rescinded by the FA.

  90. Em, that was a clear as day red. Studs off the ground, late, dangerous. That’s exactly how VAR should have handled that sort of challenge.

    Shame it’s the only time they’ve seemingly handled one correctly.

  91. @Scuba

    How was it late? Both players were stationary and stopped, it was a mistimed tackle, the palace player went to move forward with the ball after Auba had initial blocked him off. Auba made contact (Yes bad tackle) as he tried to move pass him. Nothing excessive or reckless, just a very bad mistimed tackle. Going by the rules it is not a red card.

  92. OT: Arsenal women

    This season is going to be interesting. Our women finished +4 up on the day (away), while Chel$ea (who still have a game in hand) finished +5 up on the day at home. We are 3 points ahead of Man$ity and +4 more GD. We are 4 points and +7 GD up on Chel$ea. ManUre are next closest on goal difference at +8 (so 22 behind on goal difference). Next closest on goal difference is Everton at +0. So, to determine the 2 Champions League places between 3 teams who are all more than +20 on goal difference is going to be a trick.

  93. Polo

    12/01/2020 at 1:28 pm

    “I would have liked Arteta to say in the post match media interview that he agreed Auba’s foul was a red card and that he expect the same decision when opponents do the same to his players. I would like him to put pressure on the refs to be consistent in their decision making”

    Exactly my thoughts.

    But unfortunately he says:

    “But obviously after the break we knew they were going to push, they had more bodies forward, they put us under pressure more. We started to give bad free-kicks away and that’s something that we have to avoid.”

    Which isn’t helpful.

    Ayew with 7 fouls and no card.

    AMN 1 foul and a yellow.

    PEA 1 foul and a red.

    We maintain our seasonal average of around a card every 4 fouls.

  94. I went to the Brighton vs. Arsenal WSL game in Crawley this afternoon. It was a very entertaining affair, featuring an emphatic finish by DVD inside the first 3 minutes. Viv M, seemed a little out of sorts in the first half, but came into the game more in the second 45 minutes. Leah Williamson got my vote (and my wife’s) for WotM.

    The team played with good fluidity and there was lots of interchangeability throughout with DVD and Lisa Evans swapping wings. Miedema would often drift out to the left and her place in the centre would be filled by Jill Roord, Jordan Nobbs or Beth Mead (who came on as a late sub). Kim Little is the Lucas Torreira of the Ladies’ game, and plays with great tenacity. Brighton managed to muster a few attacks, but our defence was rarely troubled (and they manage to play out from the back in a more convincing manner than the Men’s team, imho).

    After the match, we managed to get photos with seven of the players. It was a great afternoon, and I recommend it.

  96. @ Nitram, I was slightly disappointed with Arteta for not putting some pressure back on the refs, I thought he would have learnt that from Pep, but I guess not. Anyway, he’s doing a great job with the players so hopefully in a couple of seasons we will see Arsenal back to where it belong, on top of the league standing.

  97. Polo

    I have never felt this enthused about a new Arsenal manager as I do about Arteta.

    He exudes confidence, positivity and leadership.

    I am absolutely convinced he will at the very least get us back into the ‘not a trophy’ top 4, and hopefully more than that.

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