By Walter Broeckx
So the Huns came to the Emirates and left with empty hands. Fine.
There are teams that you want to see trashed at the Emirates. The spuds come to mind. And in fact Stoke is such a team. Winning 6-1 against Southampton is great but you don’t get a devilish great extra feeling doing this. After all Southampton are a rather nice club with no bad blood running between both clubs.
But with Stoke this is different. So if we could beat them with a big score you have two great feelings coming together. But in a way winning 1-0 against them with a hard fought victory with a goal at the end is in fact almost as good as a trashing. Because now they had hope for getting away with a point with their terrible tactics. And then suddenly we scored with a deflected free kick and they have to go home with no points. This brings the great devilish feeling. Beating them with their own weapons.
I can imagine the usual suspects coming over here and telling us how bad we are and how doomed we are. I think those characters will have been as disappointed as Pukes or what’s his name?
Wenger made 5 changes compared to the Liverpool game. We must remember Stoke had one day more rest between their Tuesday fixture than we had. So a smart move in my opinion. Vermaelen was out and so was Gibbs. And then he gave a rest to Cazorla, Podolski and Ramsey.
It was very much one way football. The BBC gave Stoke more possession in their stats but that must be down for counting the time the ball was out of play and they were time wasting as possession. But all the other statistics were pretty much in favour of Arsenal.
We struggled to break down their 10 man defensive line. It was a game where we had to take the few chances we would have. Stoke is the champion of the draws and of the 0-0 score line so we had make sure we took that we could get. We didn’t so it became a long and frustrating game. With not many chances. They can defend, Stoke, that is for sure.
Wenger brought Podolski and Cazorla in the second half and it paid off. When Walcott was fouled it was Podolski who placed himself behind the ball. And his shot went in taking a deflection from a Stoke defender. Yeeeeeaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! We all shouted. And then suddenly ……we saw an assistant with his flag raised.
First the facts:
- When Podolski took his free kick Walcott was standing in an offside position. He was the player the furthest away from all the players and from the assistant.
- The ball was shot in the middle some 10 meters away from where Walcott was standing.
- In the middle no Arsenal player was offside or even close to the ball (apart from Podolski who took the shot of course)
Now being an assistant myself these days most of the time I know a few things about the job of the assistant. And I know the problems you can have at times. But if the assistant couldn’t see that Walcott wasn’t interfering at all in this situation he should have his vision checked. Maybe he has a problem with depth perception. If so then I am sorry but then he should stop being an assistant.
If his vision is ok and I hope the FA checks this every now and then, then this is the strangest flag raising I have seen for a long, long while. This was a disgrace if you ask me. And I think Foy knew that all too well and so he overruled the assistant rightly so.
That was a total embarrassment for the assistant who on a few occasions seemed not really completely up to his task. And I feel sorry to say this but he himself drew the wrong sort of attention upon himself this afternoon.
Towards the end there were a few other incidents and the ref this time didn’t take enough control of. After we scored Stoke became even more aggressive and then Shawcross came in with this studs and slid in the body of Koscielny who had cleared the ball. He got a yellow card (Shawcross) but once again he came flying in like the complete lunatic he is. Breaking Ramsey is leg clearly isn’t enough for this embarrassment of a football player. Lucky for him Foy gave him a yellow card so he once again can escape what he deserved and that would be another ban for a red card. But well we know that Shawcross is ‘not that type of player’ by now. Puke.
Tempers were raised because of the bad spell from the ref and when Arteta went in strong on Owen the ref gave no foul. It was a foul from Arteta and should have been a booking as far as I can see. And then Owen threw a punch at Arteta that missed him. Again the ref didn’t see that. On MOTD the “experts” showed it and laughed it away saying it was nothing as it was a bad punch and didn’t really hit Arteta.
Well another example on how little they actually know about the rules but still try to indoctrinate the general public with their nonsense. In fact when you throw a punch or try to throw a punch it is the same. The offence is throwing a punch towards an opponent. The offence is not if it hit the opponent or not. No the throwing itself is the offence and should be punished with a red card.
Another example is that if a player throws a ball in anger towards another player, ref or spectator this player should get a red card. And then again it doesn’t matter if the ball that was thrown makes contact or not. Such actions don’t belong on a football field.
My final words go to Nacho Monreal who made his début after only one training with the team and having signed a contract some 36 hours before. I think he did his job in a sober way. He had a few misunderstandings in this game as can be expected when you are thrown in to the deep. I remember him joining the attack a few times but being overseen a bit, maybe because of the absence of Podolski on the left flank.
On one occasion he made a good run when he combined with Wilshere and his cross was dangerous but Shawcross I think could get it out of the way just before the onrushing Giroud. Defensively he looked solid and I cannot really remember him getting out of position in this game. So a good solid start from the left back who I feel will grow when he gets used to his teammates a bit better.
1-0 against the thugs from Stoke (they sure lived up to their bad name), a clean sheet. A good début. What more can you want. Chelsea losing, Everton dropping points… I know what more that I want. Let’s hope it happens on Sunday.
Recent posts…
- Arsenal v Rugby – a match preview
- Arsenal – Stoke: What can we expect from the ref?
- The moment that power changed hands from the owner to the manager at Arsenal
- What is the Arsenal and what does Arsenal represent.
- ——————————–
The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches
The sites…
- Referee Decisions - just what are the refs up to this season?
- Parent News - what is going on in schools these days?
- The weight loss programme: The only guaranteed way to stay fit
- The Arsenal History Blog from the AISA Arsenal History Society
Pat, what really depressed me about the fouls on Walcott was summed up by the third one. Wilkinson caught Walcott with the right hand, so he knew he was there, and then hit him with the left. For me it took away any thought of it being accidental.
Walcott goes down and stays down. The game is not stopped for nearly a minute (i am trying to remember how it was finally stopped). The key thing is that on my channel the commentator (I think it was David O’Leary) sums up the situation with something like ‘I don’t know why he is staying down; it is clear he isn’t going to get anything’.
The only positive I suppose is the ref finally gave a foul for the 4th one (2nd on the ball foul) and we scored from the free kick.
Mandy
You’re right about Webb letting whelan off for the nasty tackle on Garcia. He also didn’t punish shotton for an almost similar tackle on tevez early on. Both were potential leg breakers.
Menace
I thought I was the only one who couldn’t watch anymore after demba ba was butchered. Even MoTD called it trying to re-arrange ba’s face. How Webb could let that go unpunished I still have no idea.
West Brom’s Popov gets ejected for spitting at Kyle Walker two minutes into the second half, and then (super diver) Bale scores in the 67 minutes, for the 1-0 win to the spuds.
Still looking for a tie in the pool/city game.
If Arteta was not in the team we where not going to win this,i just need to ask Arteta the secret behind his presence.
The spunks win but we have seen the Rooney,s of this world spit but no red cards.@Walter about spiting can the ref give a red card to some all it apply’s to all?
Apparently Defoe walking on crutches. They have no strikers until Ade returns, we and maybe Liverpool certainly have far greater firepower than Spuds and Everton…and maybe Chelsea if they persist with Torres
Well, at least we got a tie out of the other game (2-2).
That caragher was the man of the match when we played pool, and Sturridge was MoTM today(dont agree with both choices by the way), shows the differences in the way pool contested these two games. Against us they were not that brave or adventurous as they were today.
I watched both matches today on Sky and the one thing that stood out for me was the total lack of any negative comments from the commentators and experts of any of the four teams involved (apart from those relevant to the match commentary). Contrast that with the stream of critical comment (completely disconnected to the game) we get when we are playing even from the likes of Alan Smith.
Walter, re the possession numbers. BBC use time of possession which includes time they hold the ball and waste time, goal kicks, etc. OPTA use number of passes for possession. Go to http://www.twitter.com/orbinho who publishes tweets after every game with the correct possession numbers (OPTA). This game was 66% Ars, 34% Stoke. In any event it is useful to compare the 2 as the difference amounts to what I would call the “time wasting number”. Didn’t see the game but this seems to break records in terms of time-wasting.
Don’t referees have some guidelines on time wasting?
An interesting article on Pulis / Stoke / Foy
http://www.7amkickoff.com/
Wonder if some of these refs are deliberately keeping this league as the last bastion of physical play before those dreadful interfering European types take over, turn it into a game for Nancy boys and wreck all they hold good in the UK? Or is someone just telling them to go easy on Stoke?
Why arent EUFA hitting these refs..I assume the PL comes under EUFA?
Interesting link Mandy.
It does sometimes look as if some of the refs think exactly as you say.
It does not help when the same view of physical play is represented frequently by pundits and commentators on pretty well every TV channel.
It’s a little ridiculous to start relegating teams with 3.5 months of season left, but there is just something about Arry.
We can now say that it is impossible for QPR to finish above ManU. Even if QPR were to win every remaining game, and ManU were to lose every remaining game, the most points QPR could get is 56. A win for ManC (against Southampton) or a loss for QPR (against Swansea) next weekend, will see it become impossible for QPR to get past ManC.
They aren’t alone. Neither Aston Villa or Wigan can catch ManU at this point either.
Very true pat think it will take a shawcross limb amputated on a media darling or a utd player before anything done about stoke and as we all know they do not use those tactics on utd wonder why?
@Mandy Dodd
I guess Shawcross is also on the England team now (at least once). I think that if he was to break someone’s leg in a friendly, that might get media attention as well. The other thing that comes to mind (and heaven forbid it ever happened), is if managed to break the legs of 3 or more Arsenal players. I don’t think the media would clue in if it happened twice, but 3 or more would catch their attention.
But, he isn’t that kind of player.
He certainly wouldn’t try to castrate an opposing player with his studs (my opinion of what the BBC wrote this weekend about his encounter with Koscielny).
jbh makes a good point, if you have the ESPN app on your phone it shows all the stats during and after the game and they too had 66% possession in favour of Arsenal. I was there and Stoke had very little of the ball and the majority of their attacks were 50 yard hoofs to Crouch, we were all shouting Hoof everytime Shawcross had possession and he did indeed hoof! The time wasting also includes the ‘wiping the ball’ routine for throw ins which Stoke a masters of. This really needs to be looked at.
I saw the Shawcross tackle (attack) on Koscielny on Sky and it was typical of the player, the guy really does stink the place out. In addition Wilkinson should have been booked before the Walcott challenge and sent off.
Overall a good 3 points.
Steve @ 12:08 pm
We’ve all seen teams play in the style that Stoke like to pretend that they play: e.g. Bradford.
Stoke FC stink out the league off the pitch as well as on the pitch. A grotesque masquerade of a football club.
The good thing about Shawcross’ England debut was how poor it was! Worth watching again. I bet the Welsh fans were celebrating! (They like good Rugby too, so why would they want him?).
Even better that his debut was alongside Arsenal’s Carl Jenkinson, who didn’t have much to do or put a foot wrong in the few minutes he was on the field. Unlike some.
The football gods, sometimes they can be cruel, and sometimes they can be kind.
I had to double check that BBC stat because it was unbelivable… Only to find they gave the possession stat to Stoke 53-47… This is the funniest thing ever. I can only think it is a mistake. I remember thinking when the game ended that this is in the top 3 of games I have seen Arsenal have the ball the most. Think about how much we played the ball across the field around the outside of the box and almost playing the entire game in their half till the goal. At the end the stream I watched even had 69% – 31% in Arsenal’s favour. ESPN had 65%- 35%… So really BBC need to fix whatever issue caused that.
Also, that linesman missed quite a few fouls on Walcott. It’s really tough for a pace player like Theo getting kicked while trying to run at pace, and the linesman and ref offered him very little protection. He was skinning Wilkinson from the start and that orc’s response was to kick him. the ref only needed to see those fouls and rightly give him a yellow card, that way he wouldn’t have continued to do that, or risked being sent off.
I know we are Arsenal fans and bound to feel hard done by often but really, sometimes it is much more than a bias. When we consistently finish at the top or near the top of the table on points lost due to referee mistakes, when referees like Mike Dean have consistently poor performances in our games… And still, we can d nothing… Say nothing or risk bans for the manager… That’s such a shit rule. The ref’s job is to get calls right, if he doesn’t he hasn’t done his job so we should be able to call him on that. If the FA have a problem with it, then let them go cry to UEFA and FIFA for goal line technology and replays and all that.