Trying to calm down from that abysmal referee/linesman performance, we showed a lot of promising signs today. Bobby Madley should be put out of his misery, he is terrible. How anyone can defend that beggars belief.
I think Southampton have had the better of the game and the better of the chances. That just isn’t a penalty and Arsenal have got away with it here. - Chris Sutton We said there could be drama! Having seen the luxury of the replay I think it's a harsh call from the referee. - Clive Allen
Long was awful: ref was good for 88 mins. We deserved a point but as I have many times now; we sold our proven goal scorers; we are going to struggle this season as a consequence.
And how would people feel if we were winning 2-1, and the events that just happened in the match led it to 2-2? Don't think the same people would be saying we needed to convert chances or taking the blame off the ref...
Decent game. Could see how the midfield came together with some pretty passing at times, but also how when a mistake was made how vulnerable we are against counter. Long should have done better on his flub, but still need to create a few more chances overall. Deserved a point, got robbed by the refs in a stunning series of incompetentent decisions.
We've been through this a dozen times, Tom. I'm not going to post the link again as I know you don't want to hear anything that offends your "referees are all perfect" world view but there is peer-reviewed research that shows that referees' decisions are hugely biased by crowd noise. If you're truly keen to be a good ref, you might want to read it. So yes, at The Emirates, the referee is biased towards Arsenal. Vin
On my way home now. Quick thoughts: Diamond still doesn't work. Redmond isn't a striker and Puel needs to realise that. Ref is twat. Romeu had his best game for us. Long needs to learn where the net is. Fonte still isn't the old Fonte.
Long - I don't think any of our other strikers would have got in those positions, but I'd be confident they could score them if they magically could. Real dilemma over who to play for Claude. Romeu motm. Errors all over the pitch from both teams. Don't think VvD has ever played like that for us, not his normal self.
Not forgetting about it, but I'm not terribly concerned about EL right now. If we don't pick up some wins in the league in short order, it's more of a nuisance than anything.