I seem to recall that last seasons game at your placed hinged on an appalling decision by Mike Dean to penalise an excellent challenge by Sanchez on his namesake, and though you added a 2nd the match was quite even. Whilst I agree that a 'twatting' is unlikely and our record at your ground is poor, our record at Old Trafford and at Wembley v Chelsea were also poor and we have won both of those so lets hope we make that a treble next weekend.
You must be remembering the game differently to me because I thought we deservedly won this game at The Emirates last year and were comfortably the better side on the day. I didn't think it was 'even' at all. However, you did dominate the game at Wembley and a 1-0 loss was exceptionally kind to us. Yes, the challenge on Sanchez wasn't a foul, but decisions like that happen in every game. That's life. Once the decision was given, you didn't defend it well enough. Foyth should have conceded a blatant penalty against Chelsea yesterday, but the referee didn't give it and less than 60 seconds later, you end up doubling your advantage. Spurs have been the beneficiary of refereeing decisions too, let's not pretend like they haven't. You've beaten United at Old Trafford 3 times in the past 6 years, so I'm struggling to see how your record against them is identical to the record you have against us away from home. And whilst you'd beaten Chelsea at SB for the first time in 28 years last season, the north London derby, as I am sure you will agree, is a different kettle of fish entirely. It should shape up to be a good game. I wouldn't even be surprised if you do win, but I'm certain that even if you do, it will not be a battering.
So what? Teams play badly and win games all the time. Having it decided on three incorrect decisions is embarrassing at this level.
They weren't clear offside decisions is what I'm saying. If each goal was a clear yard/half a yard offside, I'd be more sympathetic. They weren't. In real time, both goals looked perfectly legitimate. Referees and officials don't have the benefit of looking at replays (yet).
I disagree. Both looked offside, despite being relatively close. The free-kick was an absolutely ridiculous decision, too. Mike Dean was under a ton of pressure and should never have been picked for that game.
Yeah, I agree it wasn't a free-kick; Davinson Sanchez won the ball fairly. If you disagree with both goals being offside, fair enough, but honestly, I didn't even realise that both of them were offside until I saw the replays (twice). Even the commentators said they didn't want to give the officials excessive criticism precisely because of how close each decision was. I think your reasons for Dean not being picked for the game and my reasons will be completely different.
Dean had a whole campaign against him about being too pro-Spurs, despite regularly being the complete opposite. He shouldn't have been anywhere near any of our games, especially given Wenger's endless whining about the officials at the time.
Did he? Was it a social media campaign? I don't recall seeing it . Dean's given some bad, game-changing decisions against Arsenal in the past as I'm sure you may know. Which is why Arsenal fans are never happy when he's picked to ref some of our games, as he frequently gets decisions wrong. In 51 Arsenal matches he's been in charge of, which stretches back to 2004, he's given us 2 penalties in that time. And this situation did him absolutely no favours at all. https://www.express.co.uk/sport/foo...n-Arsene-Wenger-controversial-penalty-apology
2 Wins in 26 seasons before this season and we have lost more matches at OT than at any other ground in the premier league era so I think that my statement about our poor record at OT is correct. NLD are certainly totally different and I am expecting a very competitive match and I doubt that there will be more than a single goal in it and if i was a betting man I would be backing a draw a quite regular occurence in this fixture in recent years
Yes, it is. He bring his arm up to where the ball is and places it right in front of it. It's completely unnatural and he instantly moves it to a more normal position, just as it was beforehand.
PNP, Gibbs' attempted cross hits Chambers arm from point blank range. It's just unfortunate that his hand is placed where it is. Gibbs doesn't even appeal for a penalty. It wasn't a penalty and it shouldn't have cost us the game.
Outplayed is a bit strong, it was a pretty drab match settled by a couple of dodgy goals. We should have done better but it was in the middle of our worst run of the season. Quality-wise we should be beating you comfortably. That's what I was getting at and I doubt you'd disagree.
It's futile to-ing and fro-ing about a game that was almost a year ago and nothing we say or do will change the outcome of it, but the point I'm making is that Dean has pissed off a lot of Arsenal fans for habitually making poor decisions when he's refereed one of our games. Even if you think it was a penalty, a lot of people thought it wasn't. Did this play into his psyche in the build up to the Spurs game? I don't know, possibly. But one thing we can both agree on is that he shouldn't have been put in charge of it.
If we were to judge a game on a team's performance, we were the superior side on the day. There was little goalmouth action in the second half, but there didn't need to be. We were 2 goals to the good. It's no secret you're a better team than us and have better players than us. But again, you should have beaten us last season away from home and you didn't. You can't judge the NLD by the metrics you'd use for other matches. The mentality is different when both sets of players, managers and fans know how fierce the rivalry is.
No real surprise Arsenal won today albeit assisted by an own goal but Bournemouth have been punching well above their weight this season and now they're being brought down to earth. We should maintain our superior position in the table for a while yet though.
