It should have been a lot more than 6 minutes, we scored almost bang on 97:00 on the clock but their player went down injured just as the board went up for 6 minutes and was down for between 60-90 seconds before the game restarted

I would have loved to see City fans reactions throughout the game as it happened.

That they never get *%^@*** given!!!???

What was I thinking….

This team…

Yes. This.

Nothing like a last second winner but….recently Gary Neville talked about us being ‘desperate’ after the villa winner, I don’t think that’s fair as we weren’t desperate in our play - we stuck to what we know to force the winner….but, there is a case for the emotional energy we’re having to put in to these games. It could be seen as a positive that has got us this far - but we can’t keep going back to the well for that extra something. It’s exhausting

Those fans as well.

The noise and support was absolutely relentless today. That’s how you support a team and become the 12th man. The emirates has the best atmosphere of any stadium in the league

https://twitter.com/afcdw/status/163209 ... -j6VVZXEoA

A Twitter thread of Arsenal fans (all around the world) celebrating that goal

By the way tremendous technique on Ben White’s finish as well. Nice time to get your first goal for the club

Thanks for posting that. So enjoyable to watch others celebrate

I threw my arms in the air when Reiss scored, startled my wife who was already asleep. Without words, she knew why I did what I did. It was an absolutely fantastic moment

Started listening to commentary and we were 1 0 down after 9 seconds!!!
Then watched the rest of the first half on my phone after picking my Daughter up.
Had the match on for 2nd half but couldn’t really watch as my Daughter who is a learner driver was driving back from Binfield to Cricklewood so i was monitoring Her
. She did brilliantly by the way.
So checked my phone a few times and caught us wheeling away in celebration thinking yes that’s the equaliser.
No!!! It was 1 2. What they went 2 0 up .
No bloody way
Then I thought the ref had given us a penalty but it was actually the equaliser. Yes!!!!!
Got my Daughter to stop at a mcdonalds as I needed a wee.
Looked at my phone and it was 2 2 with 94 on the clock.
I left my phone on the seat as I was convinced our goose was cooked and we had dropped 2 points.
Was gutted in the toilet.
Came back to the car looked at my phone and the score only went and said 3 2
YES YES YES YES YES YES YES
I COULDNT BELIEVE IT.
3 BLOODY 2!!!!!!
All the rest of the drive I was beaming but couldn’t actually believe it.
God I LOVE THIS CLUB!!!!!!
YES YES YES YES YES YES

Moral of the lesson, always go to the loo

I'm not saying he didn't make a point. A weak one in some respects (titles are won from August to April), but I take he's possibly similar to other City fans. Those pesky Gunners, why won't they lie down. LOL

Agreed. but only 6 minutes were given. I'm fine with it all obviously, but I can't honestly say Bournemouth fans shouldn't feel aggrieved. Had we lost in the same exact manner ,we'd all be on here singing a different tune.

But we weren't, let's not mar our well deserved celebrations. I didn't even think we'd get a draw after 2-0 down. There was only one game we were down similarly and I didn't doubt we'd win. We were playing 'Boro at home, and I think Parlour went there recently before the game and it was his return to Highbury. We were in Invincible mode, we were down 3-1 and won 5-3. I didn't feel worried for some strange reason.

The time that is indicated on the board is the minimum, so there is no reason for anyone to feel aggrieved.

I wonder what the 'ball in play' stats were yesterday? Time wasting is a real blot on the game. We do it too, of course, but it certainly benefits weaker teams.

The sooner they implement something similar to the WC method of adding time, the better. Teams will still try to slow down the game but at least this deliberate 'taking minutes out of the game' will be eliminated'.

Also, let someone else drive if you are preoccupied by an Arsenal game.

Physically, the game was far more draining than had it been a 4-1 walk in the park. Mentally though, does it help us with how the game went versus a 4-1 walk in the park? An argument can be made that it will force us to approach each game against weaker sides with a tad more focus.

Also, expecting Liverpool to channel their hidden hatred and get at least a draw out of the game.

...oh and its never good when your star attacker is out injured but one thing good that has come of it is that Nketiah has gotten a great amount of playing time under pressure. When he comes off the bench after Jesus is back, he will be a much better player. Also, we can rest Jesus more than we could in the past. I'd like us to try someone with a bit more technical ability in both passing and shooting in Xhaka's position. Xhaka's presence is a plus in terms of having a leader out there. He's a much better player in his present advanced role.

I'd like to see Jorginho or Reiss-Nelson get a chance in that position.

Nah, never in doubt

2 ridiculous defensive lapses that’s all.

The thing I don’t understand with it is the reluctance to punish it with yellow cards. Obviously the time added on never equates to the time lost but equally the gk doesn’t have to rush and get the ball back in play as quickly as he can. However surely refs can see what’s happening, the laws not ‘delayed the restart of play’ as the first item in the list of cautionable offences. There is also a rule to allow a ref to caution a player for ‘persistent offending’. The problem we have is refs not seeing time wasting as a yellow card, and only using the persistent offending as the reason to yellow card them. It’s like being allowed to have 5 or 6 deliberate hand balls or professional fouls before actually being yellow carded.

This is copied from the laws of the game, have you ever seen any of these consistently given yellow cards?
Referees must caution players who delay the restart of play by:
Delaying the restart of play
• appearing to take a throw-in but suddenly leaving it to a team-mate to take
• delaying leaving the field of play when being substituted
• excessively delaying a restart
• kicking or carrying the ball away, or provoking a confrontation by
deliberately touching the ball after the referee has stopped play
• taking a free kick from the wrong position to force a retake

I think the authorities need to think outside known parameters on this issue.

Here is my suggestion. Police time wasting more effectively. The referees are too scared to give a card for it. But what about a new rule that works like this:

A warning is given for any of the above that you have kindly summarised. And I mean a referee actually having the balls to call them on it. Three warnings and there are consequences
(1) their captain is booked, and by that I mean the captain who started the game. this is to avoid a person who is captain and having already be booked, giving someone else the armband to avoid a second yellow.
(2) proper extra time is added on BUT
(3) at the completion of 90 minutes the side who has NOT been time wasting is simply asked 'Do you want the extra time which is X minutes" The time is extended by a further 1 minute for each booking the offending side has received for any infringements.
(4) the innocent team can chose not to use it. I imagine cases where you have a goal lead and decide I will take the points or even accept a draw if it suits you or
(5) they can use the extra time particularly if they are chasing the game.

https://twitter.com/goonertaik/status/1 ... -j6VVZXEoA

Gk punches White in the back from a corner, red card and penalty. Not reviewed. Maybe White should have gone down and rolled around to draw attention to it

Each of the penalty claims we had yesterday, I think there were at least 4-5, you will have an ex-ref look at and say ‘not enough’ and they will be able to justify the subjective decision - which is fine as long as that consistency is applied everywhere, the problem is it isn’t, we are penalised for the smallest infringement that is let go all the time, we’re not given penalties that are given all the time.

We’re told about the high bar for var to intervene but yet that bar gets lowered when it can go against us and raised when it can go for us.

Were you in the loo a lot?

Thanks - If anyone has any more info that would be great.

As you know, I'm not one to blame referees but VAR is now an absolute joke. At least one of the penalty claims should have been given and probably two or three of them. The one where the guy deflected the ball onto the post with his arm looked a nailed on to me.

Last minute winners are joyous.

Merson totally shocked on SSN. Gary Lineker's video of Wrighty going mental. Brilliant stuff.

My son had a chemistry exam yesterday afternoon. About 1 minute after Nelson's goal my wife spotted him walking up the road coming home so I went outside, arms aloft. No reaction. He had his phone in his hand. A few seconds later he jumped in the air. He was listening to Livescore commentary which must have been a few minutes delayed. Absolutely priceless.

I was at the match yesterday. Firstly, as the we enter the last quarter of the season and are still top of the league, I thought the mood at the stadium was quite tense. This was reflected in the atmosphere which wasnt bad given we were losing, but it lacked that noticeable noisy belief which has been a constant all season. The celebrations at the end were mental clearly fuelled by absolute relief and joy but lets hope all these last minute victories dont exhaust them.
As for the game, we completely dominated the match but we struggled to create good shooting opportuinites against a packed and well drilled defence. The days of Saka or Martinelli being 1 v 1 against a fullback seem to be long gone. High balls into the box seems a bit pointless with our collection of skillful, not very tall attacking players. I thought Smith Rowe struggled to make a difference (understandably give he's just returned), and Vieira who was involved but not quite at the elite level we need him to be. White and Nelson did improve us when they came on. Lets hope Trossard's injury isnt serious as he's looked very effective.
Lastly, the time wasting issue needs to be dealt with properly as its not fair on supporters. First half wasnt an issue, but 2nd half they started routinely taking the piss, which the referee seemed to be okay with. I think it has to be worth looking into an independent time keeper. I noticed some people had questioned the time of the winning goal, but it was fully deserved. When the board when up for injury time, one of their players decided to sit down on the pitch with a mystery ailment which took 1 minute to be dealt with, and by dealt I simply mean some Bournemouth medics ambled on to the pitch, chatted with him and then he gets up and the game restarts.
So one minute nof injury time was used up without the ball even being in play!

Thats a bit mental. If they can notice Ben White carressing the goalkeepers arm last week surely someone in the VAR dungeon has to notice a punch to the neck?

Last minute winners are amazing aren't they, especially after going 2-0 down. The sheer euphoria, the exhileration. It's just crazy, spine tingling.

That said, there are only so many times you can concede such sloppy goals and come back and win.

In a title run-in you need to be watertight because the pressure to win is immense and goals are not easy to come by, even against the so called weaker sides and even more so when most teams we face play a low block, doubling up on our wingers.

The truth is that Bournemouth had 19% of the possession but still had 4 or 5 big chances and only a combination of a poor final ball, poor finishing and great goalkeeping kept them from adding to their tally.

You can't let the opposition have only 19% of the possession but still see them have enough clear-cut chances to score 4 or 5, that is simply unstainable.

The number of times teams have broken on us with 3 v 2's and 4 v 2's in recent games is a big worry. It feels like we are attacking with reckless abandon and at some point we will be punished. We got away with it yesterday but as Rich pointed out there are only so many times you can go to the well before it runs dry.

Gary Neville talked about it and I can see just how mentally and physically draining games like yesterday must be despite the euphoria of a last minute winner.

I don't think cards are the way to go here. Refs hate giving yellow cards for this sort of thing because they want games routinely ending with multiple dismissals.
So rather
1. If a keeper take too long, award an indirect free kick. Isn't that the rule anyway? Yellow cards are not the right punishment.
2. Have a timekeeper calculate the amount of extra time accurately and without discretion OR just stop the clock when the game stops, like in rugby, American football etc.

Thats a sending off anywhere else on the pitch. It's not like he was coming to punch the ball and mistimed it either.

I think the club needs to now go public with their grievances about VAR's incompetence. Compile a video compilation of all the poor decisions we've had to endure and send it to the FA with a strongly worded letter of complaint and leak it on twitter.

I’ve attended all recent home games and was there yesterday and the atmosphere has changed, lots of noise but it’s tense now as we are in a bonafide title race and every point matters. Who would have thought it.

On time wasting yes it’s utterly absurd now and anyone who attends emirates comments on the opposition wasting time. Most refs are entirely impotent to it and the head injury rule needs to be changed. Every time a good break happens a time wasting side now uses it then you see the opposing player back on his feet and right as rain. It’s such an obvious theme now it’s boring

Drink it in

https://youtu.be/rebqUiE3xI8

The only negative yesterday aside from the Trossard injury was the Arsenal DJ playing Sweet Caroline at the end of the game. Its not classy or imaginative. Bit like playing Aga Doo or YMCA at a wedding.

Reiss nelson has his contract expiry this summer. Certainly showed yesterday and earlier this season he’s improved. That might be a dilemma for the club. He’s probably better than the number of minutes he’s getting

The other side of that 81% possession is it illustrates how much we struggle to create big chances. So many blocked shots and harmless floaty crosses.

Nelson was pinging them in hard, both along the ground and in the air (as with Whites goal)--I think that is a very good tactic against a team that is mopping up everything in the air and closing down the shooting and passing channels.