I don't want to sound bitter, but I really feel if Arsenal hadn't been given that penalty then we would have secured at least a point. I've also heard people saying their second goal should have been offside (didn't see it myself) and their third goal only really came because we were so desperate to get back into the match, so maybe you could make a case that we could even have won! West Ham away, Tottenham away and Sunderland away immediately spring to mind as results where decisions by the officials that were incorrect beyond reasonable doubt almost certainly cost us some sort of positive result/win. The thing is, I can't recall a single game in which we have benefited from the same things ourselves. In fact, we have only had one penalty in the league all season (though we should have had more on occasions) which if I am completely honest Holt dived to win, but we missed it so it had no bearing on the result. Pundits often say these decisions even themselves out over the season, but they sure don't seem to be!
I don't think we have suffered greatly through bad decisions this season, no more than usual. We haven't attacked enough to warrant any penalties, not because of referees. You set yourself up to defend, you're going to be put into a position more often where you give away penalties (rightly or wrongly). Its just percentages being played out.
Today was rough from what I have read, will watch motd later, but I tend to agree with cArrabuh Also, if we were unlucky, it seems to happen to a lot of teams vs the top clubs Either way, our safety or not will not be defined by today, but our remaining 3 home games
Couldn't agree more carrabuh. Wasn't it Bob Paisley that, when asked why Liverpool got more penalties than anyone else, he replied, "Because we attack more and are in their area more than they are."
A 1 - 1 draw would have been a fair result - and exactly what we deserved. Goals one and three for Arsenal should not have been awarded. Anybody who says otherwise doesn't understand the game of football. We clearly need a stadium that holds 60k + as the bigger the club/fanbase, the more decisions that go in your favour. Despicably biased officiating today - I defy ANY neutral to disagree.
I can't believe what other people say on other boards and sites, but the gods honest truth is 1. Wasn't a corner. 2. Wasn't a pen they were both pulling each other 3. 3rd goal was offside. 4. Sagna should have properly been sent off. But in the whole on things a point would of been a fair enough result. We played well.
Having heard Hughton's post match comments, I'd be very surprised if the FA don't rub it in a ban or fine him for describing some of the decisions as 'criminal'. We don't seem to have had the rub of the green this season at all. I agree with Carrabuh on the attacking side of things. We haven't attacked so we haven't won penalties, however there have been a number of dubious calls that have gone against us. QPR home - soft pen, rebound scored by an encroaching player. Hill commiting enough fouls to be sent off twice, but only booked once. Drew 1-1 Spurs away - blatant penalty for us turned down. Drew 1-1 Southampton away - Lambert scored after controlling with his hand. Drew 1-1 West Brom away - Bunn shoved into the back of the net for their equaliser. Lost 2-1 West Ham away - dodgy penalty for them, foul in build up to their second, stone wall penalty turned down for us. Lost 2-1 Sunderland away - Bunn's red card, soft penalty, clear penalty for us not given. Drew 1-1 Arsenal away - soft penalty, offside goal. Lost 3-1 Let's say those big decisions went in our favour instead and we won the drawn games and drew the lost games. That gives us 11 extra points which puts us on 46, sees us in eighth place and well clear of relegation. I know it's all 'if, buts and maybes' but it's decisions like those mention that can be the difference between staying up and going down. It's also interesting to note that all bar one of those games has been away from home. Which raises another question, is it injustice or just refs scarred to give decisions against the home side?
And motd has vinicated our injustice Keown says pen (no suprise) but Hansen and moyes say no pen, also no corner And third is clear offside
To be fair, we got a free kick from a dive and scored from it. But it's still disappointing to lose like that with 5+ minutes to go.
The idea that teams who attack more should get more penalties doesn't ring true though, unfortunately. There are two sides in the Premier League who are yet to be awarded a single spot kick: Spurs and Swansea.
The more I watch the penalty and 3rd Arsenal goal, the more astonishing I find it that the linesman can clearly see a foul in a crowded penalty box from 35+ yards away (with the ref about 10 yards away and could not decide) but fails to spot an offside probably less than 10 yards away (with no other player obstructing his view)! What the linesman did wrong in the case of the third goal was to get himself in line with Walcott and not the last defender, he basically got his angles wrong so it may well have appeared to him as being in line - still a gross error on his part whatever the reason. Questions really need to be asked of his ability as they were dubious at best, and how odd is it that the linesman made all the key decisions in the game and the ref made none? Sadly the highlights I can get do not show the incident where the corner was awarded but I would like to see that one again too as I never felt it was at the time, nor did the highlights show much else other than a few shots here and there.
Just watched your game on MOTD. "If Arsenal hadn't been given that penalty we'd have got at least a point". If you get points for a 2-1 defeat, both our teams would be playing in Europe! Really can not see what the argument was about the penalty. You only need to touch a player in the area to give away a foul, let alone try and undress one! The ref was clearly looking away from the incident and the foul was in the linesman's line of sight. If anything, the linesman should be congratulated for spotting the foul from that distance, but a foul it was. I genuinely feel sorry for you guys for being on top for 83 minutes then losing 3-1, but the only argument you have is the offside pass. Still would have been 2-1 though.
I would love to argue with you but I can't as I can not see the incident where the corner was awarded - the one that led directly to the penalty. 1-1 would have been acceptable and I think most of us could have stomached a 2, or even 3-1 defeat if there were not three questionable incidents leading to two of the goals. It was a ****ty way to lose the game and that is so much harder to accept
Try listening to the commentators rather than your own biased point of view. Most people are saying, other than Arsenal fans, that it wasn't a foul. It was also offside for the third goal, clearly - so fair goals would be 1-1. IMO we were so comfortable until the "penalty" you could argue that we only conceded afterwards because heads were down, so arguably that is three points taken from us by the linesman, certainly one point. Don't know why you care - enjoy your easy points
Well the first thing is that it shouldn't have been a corner to Arsenal, it should have been a GK. Second both players were pulling each other shirts, so that call could have gone either way. At 2 - 1 the players might have had more hope of grabbing another goal and went for it, at 3 - 1 with so little time to go, it was looking hopeless. But like I said before, we were fortunate to get that free kick that we scored from.
In all honesty we were 1-0 up with about 10mins to play when the pen was given! There is no way we should be conceding 2 more goals on top of the pen! Was the 2nd offside? Iv not seen it but the point is we gave them a chance and they took it. Whilst it was a valiant display from our boys, they really did let themselves down buy losing their heads after a bad decision and going on to lose what should have been a draw at least.
