My take is he rinsed the Italian league because the 'traditional' attackers there have always tended to be technicians rather than pacy powerhouses. There are a couple of powerful players there like Zlatan, Belotti and Dzeko but none of them have Lukaku's pace so the league - in a strong Inter side under a top class manager - was the proverbial cake walk for him. Back in the PL defences are much more accustomed to the pace and power battles he gives them and unsurprisingly he is finding that the league he left a few years ago has only become even more demanding in the interim.
It does have to be said that Serie A has always been a place where Big Men Up Front thrive, mainly because they have the physical attributes to withstand Italian defending while someone like a Michael Owen or Jermain Defoe would be eaten alive if they failed to adapt quickly
If you take the emotion out of it the correct calls were made. It's frustrating for Arsenal who were quite clearly superior to City in all facets of the game for a good hour but the implosion was mostly on them not the ref.
The crowd were going mental about every decision and it affected their own players. Quite amusing, as they're normally completely silent.
I agree that the implosion was mostly on us, and the referee got a lot of the 'big' calls right, but he was letting City get away with murder. Their first yellow card came in the 94th minute when Rodri got booked for taking his shirt off and inciting the crowd, despite them rotationally fouling ALL game. Rodri in particular was a key culprit of this. Yet our players were being booked for their first offence or complaining to the referee. In terms of general refereeing, Atwell didn't have a good game at all. And whilst some of the abuse directed at him is OTT, his lack of consistency for fouls and bookings absolutely warrants interrogation.
City getting away with murder, tell me something new , they constantly do it to break up play before it reaches the danger areas
Your players were all constantly harassing the ref, though. He didn't book everyone, but gave cards to specific people. We've got no way to evaluate whether he was correct or not, given what we know. We don't know what they said. The complaints about Gabriel getting booked for dissent are particularly laughable. He should've already got one for scuffing the penalty spot, as should Ramsdale. Various players were confronting Atwell, so why did he single out that player? Maybe he said something particularly bad?
Again - I've seen City do this plenty of times in matches, and they get away with it. No cards, no nothing. I don't have a problem with booking players for trying to influence the referees, but some consistency would be nice. And frankly, I think we were entitled to ask the referee what's going on when he was letting City off the hook every time they were fouling us in transition. Gabriel did get a yellow for scuffing the penalty spot IIRC. That was his first offence. The second was for dissent, but Stuivenberg said he didn't say anything wrong: "He made a remark to the referee. A normal comment. The players confirmed that and he gave a yellow card." "He mentioned about the first decision about Odegaard and he said 'what happened there then?'. No dirty language was used." https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/news/five-words-gabriel-said-referee-22622612
City foul everyone like that, but it didn't appear to be anything unusual yesterday. I don't remember anything outrageous that I expected a yellow for that wasn't forthcoming. Your players asked a lot and Atwell didn't seem put out by it most of the time. That prompts the question about the times that he was. Gabriel's cards were for dissent and a foul and neither player was cautioned for scuffing the spot. They clarified it on MOTD. Ian Wright's got a lot of abuse since for agreeing with it all. Stuivenberg's just repeating what Gabriel has told him. How would he know what was actually said?
All the talk of bad referees reminded me of ref at our game who whistled as the Watford player was breaking into the box , Skipp had fouled him 3 times but as he was clear the ldiot blew up only for them to blast over the free kick
I'm not saying it's unusual, but they still get away with it a lot, which is my point. Their first yellow was in the 94th minute and it wasn't for a foul. Because he mentioned the other players confirmed what Gabriel had said. I'm guessing he's trusting that all the other players are telling the truth about what was said in that situation.
Rodri was booked for over-celebration. Saka wasn't. More bias towards Arsenal. Stuivenburg's just making a case for the media to try to influence officials in the future. I doubt he believes what they're saying for a second. I certainly wouldn't.
Watford fans are very upset about this...and rightly so. Where I lose sympathy is the allegation that it was done to favour us. If that was the case, the foul on Kane and certainly, the judo throw on Dier would have been given as penalties, wouldn't they? In my mind, the level of officiating has reached a point where something needs to be done to improve it, because it's no longer anywhere near fit for purpose and games are being ruined by it. PGMOL needs to come under fresh management and the officials need to go back to school on what the laws of the game mean and how they are to be applied and why VAR was introduced. In relation to handball, a point was reached around the Dier handball decision where fans of all clubs made their dissatisfaction known. Something was done and things have slightly improved from that low point. if all fans get together on this and indicate that there will be financial implications arising from the current nonsense, improvements will come. If we continue to argue amongst ourselves, we'll be served up this **** forever.
Brentford v Villa, Everton v Brighton, Leeds v Burnley. Lots of implications for the lower mid-table...
Regarding the persistent fouling... 1. He who must be called Pep has got all his teams to do this from Barca onwards and they are never punished for it. 2. Arteta learned this from his time at City and was caught on camera during a half time team talk on the Amazon documentary telling the team to "foul in opponents third of the pitch so they don't punish turn overs." 3. He who must be called Pep denied City do this do the media never mention it even though they do it EVERY week. You lot were unlucky because your mistakes were punished by the best team in the Premier League not because the decisions were wrong. The geezer who got the red was a mug, and the penalties could have gone in your favour but you missed two or three brilliant chances and that's ultimately what cost you.
