From today’s press conference, as related through the Daily Mail (a very reputable source, of course, but they are quoting him correctly this time):

Wenger said ‘I believe that he is incompetence or dishonest. I prefer that he is incompetent.

‘Usually I trust the referee. I never have bad intention. But when I spoke with referees I want to understand why he made so many technical mistakes. That assesses his competence.

‘The rule is quite clear. I don’t want to get too much in technical details but he made at least five technical mistakes for a referee.

He (also) missed a 100% penalty on (Tomas) Rosicky. I can accept that judgement. But once it gets to technicality. For me the (Sol Campbell) back pass is accidental. He (the referee) judge differently. We have a difference there.

‘A guy who makes so many technical mistakes that (it) is not about judgement. I believe that he is not competent.’

I’d prefer a straight up win or loss. A straight up loss and we can say we just were outplayed, there were no individual errors, or anything of that sort. No more of “if who and who didn’t…we would have won/scored/not conceded”. A straight up win and we can sit back and say we deserve it and no one can dispute us.

Arsenal, like Liverpool, has been made the media’s whipping boys, and this needs to stop. If I, as a spectator, am sick of this, I cannot imagine how the players feel, and that is not helped by the strong section of Arsenal supporters calling out for beheadings after one or two bad performances.

Is the goal off-side?
There was no defender in front of both Porto players.

Indirect freekick means that you need a 2nd touch, a pass to a 2nd player.
Then, the 2nd player, when he received the pass from the dead ball, is in an off-side position as the last defender – Sol – was behind him.

The goal should be disallowed for off-side.

The referee only raised his arm after the ball was played. Watch the video

I have to admit that I have never seen an incident like that but we shouldn’t have been in the situation to begin with.

Well Tim, I believe that these latest errors (two of ‘em) from Fabianski may have effectively destroyed his confidence and he may very well be never the same again.

In all probability, he may go the way of Richard Wright.

If Wenger still has the confidence and belief in him, we will see him playing this Saturday; under closed scrutiny as to the mental toughness of Fabianski.

We will know if Fabianski is as mental fragile as Manniger.

Tony,
Check out this photo from The Sun.

It shown the ref’s arm was raised to indicate an indirect kick.
Sol was blocked by a Porto’s player with an outstretched arm.
But it happened behind the ref.

For those fans who were at Porto, it will be interesting to read here the actual unbiased event.

But Champions League level referee Martin Hansson ALSO bungled it. That is what Walter is pointing out in his excellent analysis.

I worry about Fabianski’s nerves, particularly after the media and fans are jumping on him. I wouldn’t be too surprised if he’s feeling queasy about even stepping onto the Emirates pitch. What he needs are fans to support him after this (think about Abou and how he came back after his mistake against Man U earlier this season). I also think he should be sent out on loan for next season so he can gain some experience and composure. And so he doesn’t have to think of his night in Porto. From the looks of things, a loan might be the only way to save his Arsenal (or even footballing) career.

Well endowed just want to say that I have a little bit of a history on highlighting the refs on this site. When there are strange things or blatant mistakes done by refs the audience is crying out for me to give my opinion on it. And I must say that as a ref I feel well placed to give my opinion on those matters.

I even try to be as neutral as I can be. You could even see I didn’t blame him for deciding to give the indirect free kick as this is down to the interpretation of the ref.

I leave the pointing to our players over to those who feel more qualified to do so but like Tony said from the moment the game ended they asked me to give my opinion. So the readers demand, I deliver and I must say that if I also would have taken on the task to give a rating of every player on the field you still could be reading the article by now.

Thee bigger issue is the demand or the expectation by many that Wenger and Arsenal should go out and splash major cash on a world class keeper. It is completely in contradiction with the current recession and the gloomy economic climate. IMO, there has been a paradigm change in football economics. I am convinced that we are in a deflationary era and we are still in the early stages. Any club which is crazy to spend 15-20 million on a keeper and commmit to paying him at least 100,000 per week is rolling the dice with their future. Even Arsenal with its substantial cash-in-hand cannot engage in this madness. Wildy repeating the cliche that a goalkeeper wil save you six (6) points or whatever number misses the entire point. Most clubs, with the exception of Oil City and KGB-Fulham, must ensure their long term survival by patiently growing from within. I will not be surprised that next summer Man-IOU has to sell some of the family silver to meet its debt obligations. Interesting times are ahead.

Yes, shotta-gunna, it’s MUCH easier to accept the truth than it is to justify the impossible. Forget about whether it was an intentional back-pass, and forget about the finer points of the game – Fabianski shouldn’t have caught it in the first place. And what about the first goal?

Blaming it on the ref is like blaming World War 2 on Neville Chamberlain.

Walter, you’re a knowledgeable guy and you love the Arsenal, but you don’t have to defend the indefensible. Fabianski was crap the other night. We made “school-boy errors”. End of story. You’re not any less an Arsenal fan for saying it. Even Cesc said it.

“The Arsenal are going backward’s faster then you can say WMD’s”

(boom boom!)