In the debacle that we witnessed yesterday afternoon, Arsenal were robbed.
If that ‘tackle’ by Paul Robinson on Theo Walcott had happened anywhere else on the pitch, it’s a free kick. But why not a penalty? Because he had his hands down? Do me a favour.
Officials have conspired to consign Arsenal to their third defeat of the season. Frankly, it’s becoming a joke. Arsenal were clearly the better team yesterday. An offside goal and a fortuitous own goal by Alex Song made the difference in a game that the Gunners really should’ve won.
These freak events sometimes happen, and you can’t legislate for them. But yesterday, right at the death, we should have had a reprieve. Robinson comes charging out, Walcott squeezes his shot off, Walcott is sent crashing to the ground. Apparently, a late tackle isn’t a foul when it’s in the box. Especially when it’s against Arsenal.
Rewind a few weeks to the Newcastle game. Joey Barton assaults Gervinho by yanking him up off the ground by his throat. A foul, in the box no less. The referee has to stop play. But do Arsenal get a penalty and does Barton get a red for his violent play? No, Gervinho gets a red for pawing at Barton, who in turn gets a yellow.
These are two incidents in recent games that have shaped Arsenal’s season so far. Even forgetting the offside goal scored by Blackburn during a crucial passage of the game, we should’ve got a point yesterday. If you were to add three points to our tally and things don’t look so bad.
There will be inevitable calls for Arsene Wenger to be sacked. I don’t concur with this though. He’s just not getting the rub of the green at the moment. Hardly a sackable offence.
The problem for me is with the linesmen and the referees. Nowadays, all too often, refs and their officials are affecting results. These officials are supposed to be watching over games, not deciding them. Every season the sport gets faster and faster, and refs can’t keep up. Unless they’re given help they are going to keep making massive mistakes, then the wrong teams are going to keep getting results they don’t deserve.
Last season, in an independent study, it was shown just how much inept decision making cost certain teams. Have a look HERE To see just how different the league would have looked if referees didn’t make costly mistakes.
Even with video help and a fourth referee, you are never going to erase human error from the game. But in this day and age, with so much riding on results, how can the greatest, most popular sport on the planet still be living in the dark ages when it comes to officiating?
I’m getting bored of it now, because more and more often results are being unfairly handed out. How are we, as supporters, supposed to maintain our enthusiasm for a sport that is not only corrupt, but deeply unfair?
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Totally agree! It’s time for video review. Unfortunately there would have to be whistles. Do people want a flowing game or do they want correct calls. I’m in favor of correct calls.
Looking at that adjusted league table, I have to disagree with Utd appearing above us. It can’t have accounted for the 11+ red cards that they avoided. Wilshere got lucky twice, I think, but apart from that we weren’t really lucky from that perspective. How many points these dismissals, or the resulting 1-3match bans would have affected things is anyone’s guess, however. I think it would have cost them a fair few points, still.
Also, untold did an analysis of the refs in all of our games, and they concluded that we had dropped 11 points directly because of refs, rather than just 4. That was only based on decisions that directly led to an important goal that would very likely have cost/gained us points, they actually left quite a few out. I know they aren’t strictly “independent” as they are arsenal fans, but I’ve always thought them to be very fair on these things.
Spot on!!
Nonsense..
Luck has nothing to do with it. Penny pinching in the transfer window led to panic buying. AW will probably cost the club more in the long term. If we don’t qualify for CL next year we’ll have a whole host of problems with players leaving and no one of great quality wanting to come in. Ticket and shirt sales will plummet. We will drop down the league and find ourselves in a position like Leeds if we’re not careful. Mark my words!!
That Independent study wasn’t unbiased because they used match reports from newspapers as their source. We know the English press is vehemently anti-Arsenal.
It a true adjusted points league were made for last season, Arsenal probably would have won the league by 6 points.
What’s gonna be gonna be, arsenal we need to get back quick else miss the top 4, ref or not ref even though both f a n ref ar not behind arsenal 4 long becouse of non top english players in the team.
As well as the nailed on pen at the end and the offside goal (i don’t care how close it was, offside is offside as it was for Liverpool’s first against us) why am i the only person to think that Arsh actually got the ball and didn’t foul Lowe leading up to the 1st o.g.?
I thought that too.
I’ve been an arsenal supporter for about 20 years and i’ve never seen them be so bad. NO EXCUSES….. no team of arsenal’s stature should be depending on luck to win any game. a change is needed in the coaching, IF wenger is going to continue to be stubborn and not change his ways NOW them i’m afraid that the change has to start with him!!
You dont go out thinking ‘i hope lady luck smiles on us today’
Its when you are 2-1 and lose 4-3 when you should have won 4/5-2 that you think ‘lifes a bitch’
The team is becoming useless for now and the problem is the Coach,he believe he is indispensable you can not buy players when the league has started and you expected them to perform like a player that have been in the league for four years.Player from france,Germany,Turkey,etc cannot come and perform now….where is the pre season to acclimatized.