Match Day Thread Watford v Arsenal 14 Oct 2017

Come on guys its Watford and they cant let us beat one of the top 6 .So they are going to say we cheated

 

Is this the first time that Wenger was not looking the other way and actually saw what happened? I recall a debate on MOTD the other year when they all came to the conclusion that when a player was moving at speed, then it only needed a slight touch to knock him over, and that is what I think happened to Richarlison. It was not a dive.

 

In that regard Danny Murphy was spot on - I highly doubt had that been an Arsenal player in our area Wenger would have just stood there and not reacted either way!

And the same goes for their players.

Lets be honest - very rarely you do hear a manager admit a ref made the right decision if it goes against them - they usually have some excuse or compare it to something that happened with a different ref weeks or months ago!

Unless its so clear cut like the Andy Carroll double booking for his raised elbows and I bet Bilic only accepted that because West Ham still got a point.

They were very close and Ricky was going forward so any touch was going to lead to a connection - and all the pundits seem to same its ok to go down if you feel a touch..

 

But it is impossible for us to beat one of the top six.

Namely, ourselves...

 

Looking back at the highlights, we did get a bit lucky when bellerin missed and otzil, (can't be arsed to check spelling of their names)

Long may the rub of the golden yellow continue.

 

Ditto Toby

 

First of all... what a match, and what an atmosphere! Well done to the 1881 with the flag - was immense!

I thought the first half an hour was pretty even. Neither team really created much, and neither keeper was tested. Then between 30 and 45 mins, Arsenal just stepped up a gear. They seemed to work out they need to play the ball behind our defence for them to run on to, and caused us plenty of problems, and was probably a bit lucky to go in at 1-0

The second half it just seemed Arsenal wanted to sit back and counter, and should have scored another, with the Gomes save and the big Ozil miss. The subs then changed it - I said at half time we should go back to 4 at the back and bring on Carillo and push Pereyra centrally, as he was drifting in a lot anyway, so well done to Silva for making the change

The penalty... I can't actually believe how much criticism there is for it. Or maybe I can, as it is Wenger and Arsenal fans - the biggest wingers on social media! There was obvious contact and sure he went down easy, but you see those in almost every game... so if Rich gets a ban for that, then there will numerous bans every weekend. Or maybe it's just little old Watford, so how dare we get a soft penalty

After that, it was only one team that wanted to win. Deeney was right... Arsenal just don't have the cojones for a fight. Was refreshing to see his honesty, about Arsenal and his own abilities.

Also great to see we have fight right to the end now. I think that is 6 points we have won in the final minutes! We now have a 'team' again... players who want to fight for each other, plus some quality on top of that!

 

Such a shame we didn't see a repeat of this reaction from Wenger - maybe it taught him a lesson.

 

I have to say that the media & gooner fans harping on about how those two 'should already have put the game to bed' has annoyed me all week-end - very little said about Richarlison, Pereyra and Capoue all missing opportunities to do exactly the same. Anyone would think there was only one team on the pitch - as if we trotted on in the 70th minute, scored a penalty, trotted off again until coming back on in the 92nd minute....

 

http://dailycannon.com/2017/10/clattenburg-richarlison-did-not-dive-to-win-penalty/

I think I'll go along with Mark Clattenburg's opinion of the penalty...

 

teamTALK have decided both our goal were incorrect decisions. I can see the penalty decision comment as they are just going with the media flow, but wasn't Troy Deeney actually onside when the ball was played, which is what matters and not five seconds later?

http://www.teamtalk.com/news/ref-review-coutinho-lukaku-richarlison-all-under-the-microscope

 

For obvious reasons I really enjoyed the game. We have some real quality on the ball now. I watched the penalty on BT Sport many times from a lot of angles. I don't think Richarlison could avoid going down but I don't personally think there was enough contact to warrant a penalty. If it had been give against us I'd have been furious. Nice that it wasn't the big club that got the decision this time! That said the pressure applied in the last quarter of the game certainly deserved to be rewarded.

 

Just a random thought
As everyone know only the "big" top six sides get the 50/50 penalty decisions in their favour and Watford are 4th in the table and Arsenal are in mid table mediocrity, are we for now anyway a "bigger" club than Arsenal, with a better team and a more tactically aware manager

 

I don't think they know what they're talking about to be honest.
Re Cleverley's goal, Troy was clearly onside when Holebas shot and still onside when the ball was deflected towards Cech. When Capoue shot after the ball bounced off Cech, Troy was actually standing on his head, facing the Rookery, after rolling over Cech - and when Cleverley fired home the rebound, he had just rolled over onto his backside - hardly interfering with Cech's vision given that he was sitting behind him, and making no move towards the ball.

As for the penalty - this shot shows that it was more than a 'coming together' and not a dive. Not only a push in the back, but a trip.

 

I'm not getting all the vitriol towards the 'dive'. It wasn't exactly a clear dive - there was contact. You'll see similar in almost every game... I do wonder if it was Cleverley, Deeney, Gray going down, would there be so much hurrah about it (of course I'm not suggesting any xenophobia in the English media...)

The BBC are suggesting as there was contact, that nothing is really going to happen - but the worry is, because it's a new rule, Rich and Watford will be an easy target to make an example of

 

Simon Stone‏@sistoney67 1h1 hour ago

Richarlison to face no further action following @WatfordFC v @Arsenal. Case went to simulation panel, but they decided not simulation.

 

There you go Keith Hackett, stick that in your pipe and smoke it

 

Plus a few other 'experts'... along with the Arsenal Twitter brigade!

 

"As for the penalty - this shot shows that it was more than a 'coming together' and not a dive. Not only a push in the back, but a trip."

Still shots can be misleading. It could equally show the defender got his left foot down first as they were running. I think he has to stick his foot out for it to be a trip. I'm delighted we got the decision but as I say I'd have been very unhappy if it had been given against us.

 

We was not 4th when the decision was made but we are now .And we are there with playing 3 of the so called top teams