The Koscielny thing for me was far worse than the decision to give a penalty. It was actually potentially dangerous not to have stopped the game. That's why that rule on head injuries is there. Nothing less than disgraceful.
Love this bit of Jose quote on his Instagram..... f6nte. When Giroud asks me who gave the penalty away that says it all,if you haven't watched the game and come to criticise please save me that!
Was just discussing this with my mate. Whether he was faking the injury or not, the ref put koscienky in jeopardy by continuing. What if a player had tripped over him or he had got stamped on in a goal mouth scramble? Ref needs to be punished, they get far too much protection. Seen it this season and and countless times in previous seasons. I accept genuine mistakes, but poor decisions are happeing far too much. This is the biggest league, financially, in the world. The standard of officiating is not good enough.
As others have already said, Romeu was MOTM, for us. I'm disappointed that of the yellow cards we received, none were for putting Cazorla into touch. He was pulling all of Arsenal's strings and someone really should have taken a card for giving him a "little kick", in an attempt to slow him down a bit. Clasie. As much as I admire the skills he possesses, going down with cramp after just 60 minutes, is not what I expect from someone who has come through a full pre-season, even if he hasn't played every minute of our league games. He just doesn't appear to be physically suited to the high tempo game played in this country.
Romeu was great today and that was heartening after some sub standard performances from him. Clasie does have quality but agree he seems to struggle with 90 mins. As we have a plethora of options for the dogged, win every ball going role (including my favourite Harrison Reed!) we should be using the likes of Clasie, Reed, JWP etc in 45-60 min bursts with them literally give everything for the cause.
Jordy has just got himself a rest for Thursday, but something tells me he won't mind too much. Still, handy to have on the bench with the games coming thick and fast.
Absolutely correct FLT. Referee's know that the bigger teams results come under closer scrutiny, so understandably favour them. That's bias IMO and they should be better than that.
Ok, don't want to repeat was has already been posted, we all feel defeated, not by a referees poor call in a split second moment but by being influenced by the roar of the home fans. Same incident, other end, would not have been given, he wouldn't have risked it. So mad, need to look at positives. Fortress st Mary's, unbeaten at home Our 2 away games played have been 2 of the hardest we will play this season We are not west ham We are still in 4 cups Boufal still to come into the team Bobby Madley will not be refereeing our next match. Best I can do at the moment
I like how after last game everyone was saying we needed to drop the diamond because Romeu could not play it. Romeu had an excellent game today. somehow the diamond is still the problem.
You're telling me a ref, who's refereeing in front of Arsenal's home fans, in the 94th minute, would be brave enough to make the same decision if it was the other way around? Could almost guarantee he wouldn't.
Apparently not on the subject of strikers; bit of a closed shop on that score (excuse the pun). Completely agree with you about Romeu; thought he was superb.
I was thinking that actually! For me the problem in the diamond formation isn't Romeu - it should actually quite suit him - he's just been a bit pony for a couple of games. The problem with the diamond for me is using our attacking players in the 'wrong' positions and expecting them to adapt and be equally effective.
So I haven't watched the match. Could someone clarify the situation with the penalty - was it a penalty, was Fonte at fault again?
Think we made a mistake in the striker deptartment.we lost alot of goals in the players we lost and imo not replaced them properly. Still, its done and we have to hope we can get enough goals.
