Absolute nonsense you are chatting Jay ! Look how dangerous and potent we looked in that first half when we moved the ball quickly forward to Gyokeres, his hold up/link up play was fantastic, he led the line against the so-called best defence in the league brilliantly, we were magnificent in that first half. He seemed to physically fade in the second half, he got manhandled, is that a fitness thing or the fact Newcastle were doing some WWE rough housing ?!
Bro, that first half was reminiscent of the 2022/23 season when we used to blitz teams with our attack. Newcastle didn't know what him them. Kudos to Arteta for acknowledging the change of tactic was required, we could easily have been 4 up at half time.
If Pope was a CB - they would say he denied Gyokeres a clear goalscoring opportunity. That challenged would have been a foul all day long. (and a red card)
I am commentating on where the ball went to when it was touched by Popes foot. , it wasn’t a certain tap in goal
The reason why the touch is irrelevant (IMO) is because it's not like Pope made a challenge to get the ball first. Gyokeres gets to the ball first, it brushes Pope's foot, which is planted, then there is clear knee-on-thigh contact which made it a penalty. I can show you the contact if you want. Also, just because you get minimal contact on the ball, doesn't mean you can make any challenge you want. A foul is a foul at the end of the day. It wasn't a red card for Pope, but it absolutely was a penalty. It was not a clear and obvious error to overturn the original decision.
It doesn't have to be a tap in or a certain goal, it just needs to be a foul. Fouls are committed and given all over the pitch not just when a goal is on the line. The keeper had forward momentum, there was significant impact with the player after the player and keeper touched the ball.
Give over HH. He literally fell down under pressure and was only moderately successful at holding the ball - he lost more duels than he won. No goals and no assists again. Thats 2 open play goals in 7 games. Liverpool, City, Utd, Newcastle, Athletic - no goals and no assists. Thats not good enough - and if it were anyone else they would be getting flack. He needs to significantly up his game and start contributing in the big games - 3 games in a row a forward has come off the bench and scored where Gyokeres was failing.
Exactly - a touch on the ball does not nullify a foul. Pope rushed out and was second to the ball and in the collision he took Gyokeres out - a pretty clear penalty and iwhilst it's a disgrace that VAR got involved, it's not a surprise. We've seen it time and time again with VAR and Arsenal - over analysing every incident to look for ways to impede us. Something they do not do for their favoured clubs up North. No surprise there either... the PGMOL is a secretive organisation with no oversight and the vast majority of their officials are from the North.
We need to beat the teams we are expected to beat - that has been our downfall in recent years (if you exclude the role of the PGMOL in stopping us winning the league, because that is an annual endeavour on their part). Last year we thrashed City, drew with Utd and Liverpool and lost to Newcastle - 5 pts from 4 games. This year 7 points from the 4 games, so better. We need to take advantage of it now by winning the next few games.
