By Bulldog Drummond
Liverpool got away with their fairly blatant intimidation tactics in monday’s game with the two very serious fouls only getting yellows, while ensuring that Arsenal realised that they would likely get punished far more aggressively by the referee if they retaliated with fouls of their own. It is a clever tactic that has been seen elsewhere, but is especially effective when the teams play each other again a few days later.
For this approach to work, the club setting out to commit the killer fouls and get away with it need to be in the lower half of the fouling league table and thus not thought by the ref to be serial foulers, which is exactly where Liverpool were before the game.
| Team | Played | Fouls | Fouls per game | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| For | Agst | For | Agst | |||
| 1 | Tottenham H. | 3 | 48 | 32 | 16.00 | 10.67 |
| 2 | Fulham | 3 | 48 | 39 | 16.00 | 13.00 |
| 3 | Sheffield United | 3 | 44 | 23 | 14.67 | 7.67 |
| 4 | Brighton and Hove A | 3 | 41 | 45 | 13.67 | 15.00 |
| 5 | Crystal Palace | 3 | 40 | 39 | 13.33 | 13.00 |
| 6 | Chelsea | 3 | 39 | 22 | 13.00 | 7.33 |
| 7 | Southampton | 3 | 37 | 40 | 12.33 | 13.33 |
| 8 | West Ham United | 3 | 33 | 29 | 11.00 | 9.67 |
| 9 | Newcastle United | 3 | 32 | 43 | 10.67 | 14.33 |
| 10 | West Bromwich A | 3 | 31 | 34 | 10.33 | 11.33 |
| 11 | Everton | 3 | 31 | 42 | 10.33 | 14.00 |
| 12 | Arsenal | 3 | 30 | 36 | 10.00 | 12.00 |
| 13 | Manchester United | 2 | 29 | 28 | 14.50 | 14.00 |
| 14 | Leicester City | 3 | 28 | 38 | 9.33 | 12.67 |
| 15 | Aston Villa | 2 | 26 | 31 | 13.00 | 15.50 |
| 16 | Liverpool | 3 | 26 | 23 | 8.67 | 7.67 |
| 17 | Wolverhampton Wand | 3 | 24 | 28 | 8.00 | 9.33 |
| 18 | Leeds United | 3 | 23 | 45 | 7.67 | 15.00 |
| 19 | Manchester City | 2 | 21 | 14 | 10.50 | 7.00 |
| 20 | Burnley | 2 | 21 | 21 | 10.50 | 10.50 |
Tottenham are the foulers of the moment equal in first place with Fulham.
There is a theory that has many supporters, that says that cup ties are refereed more evenly, as referees take it as a moment to try and even up on their biased decisions making in the league. That would be nice, if it turns out to be true.
There is also the view that once referees have drawn attention to themselves by allowing some fairly outrageous fouls only to get a yellow card, they and their fellows are keen to avoid being caught out, by balancing matters up a little next time around.
Again, we shall look with interest.
Meanwhile “Just Arsenal” website states that the deal for transferring Sead Kolasinac to Bayer Leverkusen will be completed on next 48 hours with the player leaving for €11m + add ons. They say that this is “confirmed.”
The fourth official website gives as a lineup…
Runarsson
Holding Luiz Gabriel
Maitland Niles Elneny Ceballos Tierney
Pepe Nketiah Saka
The Standard has a team news section but fails to give us its take on the team except the say that they expect Runarsson to play and for Reiss Nelson also to get a game. And they expect us to win 2-3.
The Independent has a headline promising a line up but at the time we looked there wasn’t one.
The Short Fuse however has
Runarsson
Saliba Gabriel Kolasinac
Cedric Willock Elneny Saka
Pepe Nketiah Nelson
Here’s another this time from the Daily Canon
Leno
Holding Gabriel Kolasinac
Bellerin Ceballas Willock Saka
Pepe Nketiah Nelson
Mind you it is all very well bringing all these youngsters into the first team but our under 23 team is suffering, Here is the lower part of the League 2 league table
| Pos | Club | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| 9 | Leicester City | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 | -5 | 3 |
| 10 | Manchester City | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | -1 | 1 |
| 11 | Arsenal | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -2 | 1 |
| 12 | West Ham United | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | -4 | 1 |
| 13 | Manchester United | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 7 | -4 | 0 |
As for the League Cup sadly our record is not that wonderful.
Arsenal has got to the final eight times but has only won twice. In 1968 we lost to Leeds United, in 1969 playing on a wet ploughed field we lost to Swindon Town 3-1, largely because our team didn’t fancy getting kicked to shreds by tackling that matched the conditions.
Our first triumph was in 1987 when we beat Liverpool 2-1. This was the era when all commentators said that Liverpool never lose when they score first. They scored first and lost and the commentary team had no idea what to say, but kept on focusing on Liverpool in defeat. Arsenal hardly got a look in on TV.
We had another Swindon moment when losing 3-2 to Luton Town in 1988, but came back in 1993 to be the first ever team to win the FA and League Cup double, beating Sheffield Wednesday 2-1.
Since then it has been defeats all the way, 2007 to Chelsea, 2011 to Birmingham and 2018 to Manchester City.
“For the past few days, the Mexican media has been full of reports saying Arsenal youngster Marcelo Flores was invited to train with the Gunners’ first team. This is the first experience the 16-year-old is getting with Mikel Arteta’s main squad, and that meant something big for the teenager.” That from Sport Witness.
TBR Football added…
Talented Arsenal youngster Marcelo Flores has already agreed a five-year professional contract with the Gunners which will be announced in the coming days. That is according to the player’s father, Ruben Flores, who says the agreement has been reached but cannot be verified until the young winger turns 17 on October 1st.
Which is today.
Oh you beauties. Where have you been all this time. You can’t believe the shite we have to put up with. Its repetitions they say are new. It’s old stuff they call news. Its stuff even the communist party would be embarrassed to publish. Absolute tosh. I will keep looking maybe like today I will get lucky.
At one of the Women’s matches last season, I sat in front of the Flores family. His sisters transferred to Chelsea earlier in summer. They were a delightful family and I said I would look forward to his future development. With a reported 5 year contract which is longer than normal for a 17 year old, he is clearly a youngster highly thought of at Arsenal and I’m extremely pleased that he has committed his immediate future to us.
15 minutes into our Women’s cup semi final and so far we aren’t at the races. Man City lead one nil through a Houghton freekick. We need to be much sharper.
One all in Manchester, no dammit they’ve scored again. Two one to City
The slope is in action in the first 10 minutes. Friend sees what he wants and ignores any fouls on Arsenal players.
We have to win despite this bias and evil in the English game. This bastard took a knee!!!!!
‘Its nothing he’s pushed him over’ says our brilliant Carregher. Another who knows better than the southerners!!
Halftime and a frustrating watch. We have been really poor, our passing is off, it looks like we’ve never played together and we are missing a number of players due to injuries in previous games
Nobbs with our goal, another excellent strike, I can hardly remember Miedema having a touch anywhere the City area. We need to be far better in the second half
No final for our Women, second half goalless. City plus officials win the game two one. I think I detest them more than Chelsea.
We really weren’t very good tonight and were pushed and shoved all over the pitch with precious little protection from Mancunian officials.
The friend is a cheat!!! The hand was away from the body and used to control the ball!!
It is a penalty but only if it is within selective vision!!
PGMOL and all their officials are cheats!!
Fuck liverpool for cheating in the last game! Yeah!
Liverpool again were the better team. Fine, I can live with that. BUT ! Why do the refs feel compelled to favour Liverpool, or to put as menace has….cheat. Again a nailed on penalty. I have absolutely no sympathy with Liverpool. They get away with murder. And jeeeez if ever there was a team that didn’t need it.
Another sad indictment on the mind set of our referees.
On the match. we weren’t great if we are honest. But and it’s a big but, this team seems to know how to hang on in there. They also seem to have a bit of luck go their way, refereeing accepted, which are important traits going forward.
Onwards and upwards.
COYG
The worst part of the whole mess is the pundits and commentators. They all see the clear penalty when Mildred dropped on the floor and handled the ball, but apparently it is quite natural for a girls hand to feel for the ball when on the floor!!
It is an absolute shambles when such a clear penalty is not seen by the officials!!!
@Nitram,
I agree with you. The Gunners have become much more combative. Their press is much better. Many times we’d see 2 or even 3 players going for a ball in a Pool! players feet. Like a swarm. Body language is quite changed from a year ago.
They have turned into fighters. At no point in time were Pool! able to bully us.
I did love how, a few times, the backline was playing the ball between themselves while facing Pool! pressure, keeping control in our backfield to make a structured forward move rather then just kicking a long ball. They are much more in control when facing the press then they used to.
And our coach has squad depth and cunning that enables him to adapt the line-up depending on the player.