Two points absolutely chucked away today.

Unfortunate for us

Ok ....

Not really. It was a rubbish decision.

Mind you so was the earlier handball one where we were robbed.

That makes the decision to not give a penalty even worse when he gives that one. Just utterly incompetent every single week. How has var looked at that and decided it isn’t handball. Even Peter Walton who agrees with every onfield decision said it was a pen - you know it’s stonewall if he’s saying that.

People will moan about missed chances and saying we should have finished the game and not rely on ref decisions but that’s nonsense. We had a clear penalty to win the game not given. It happens far too often that refs are deciding games and we’re on the rough end too often

We fail to learn our lesson again. Overly casual and the opposition scores.

Not yet - But you're probably right ...

so if youre a yard away from the attacker in the pen box, you can just have your arms out any way you like now

feckin disgraceful decision

First one was nonsense though.

4 mins to grab the extra 2 points ...

thats what i was referring to

Overall performance just not good enough today. Gifting them a goal obviously makes it difficult, but we just don't create enough over 90 minutes against an inferior side that's playing their third game in one week. Very frustrating.

I prefer robbed by the ref rather than chucked away. It’s an atrocious decision

trying to get over the non-award of the penalty and i suddenly remembered Pépé's miss. I need a lie down I think.

Aaaaahhh. So darned close.

It was a dreadful decision, but we gave away a comedy equaliser then Pépé missed one Harry Redknapp's missus would have stuck away. We only have ourselves to blame. And Aubameyang misses another one then we smash one against the post. Jesus.

and we can complain about all sorts, but when your record signing fluffs a relatively easy chance 2 yards out, and your 'midfield general' gifts the opposition a goal, then we got what we deserved

Thanks Arsenal you have ruined my weekend.

Xhaka lost us 2 points. Unfortunate

Yes, and he missed the sitters and made all the refereeing decisions. Totally his fault and I won't hear any different.

Precisely.

don't forget though that had the first handball pen been given, Pieters was already on a yellow so could have been sent off

Well said Ash.

I'm not sure that gets given as a yellow, what for? God you just reminded me of it again, I can't believe VAR. And if the ref gives it, Var never overturns it, but no, he gives the one that hits his shoulder

We need to find a way to string some good performances together. We were very good against Southampton, then had a sluggish game against Man Utd. Then a great first half against Wolves, spoiled by Luiz sending off. Poor game against Villa, then a good performance against Leeds and a decent one against Benfica. Not much to say about the City game, but then we have another poor performance against Benfica, only to follow that up with one of our best performances of the season against Leicester. And we now looked sluggish again. We never seem to get any momentum going.

It did have a massive bearing on the game though.

But as I always say if Arsenal playing badly and a ref screwing us don't have to be mutually exclusive, both can and do happen.
If the ref hadn't given us that penalty against Leicester right on half time there is a good chance we draw that game as well. Would that be Arsenal's fault?
Some games we are going to miss chances, yes it happens too often but that's because we're a mid table team, it happens to everyone but it is totally different than a ref missing a certain penalty that wins the game. I never understand why some Arsenal fans feel we can't point a finger at a referee just because we didn't play well?

At the end of the day he cost us the win. He also cost us the game v them at home. Trying to suggest these individual cock ups didn’t affect results is nonsense in a competitive league.

And that in itself shows the incompetence. We want consistency. We realise that consistency is difficult on subjective decisions between two different referees, or even from the same referee in different games, but for the same ref to call those two incidents as he did within 5 minutes of each other and get them both totally wrong - and then the var ref not to correct him on the first one just shows the level of awful officiating we're having to put up with.

VAR on the whole has created more correct decisions but the other thing it has done is completely expose how bad our refs are.

I said it was a dreadful decision. So I am 'pointing a finger' at the ref. But surely you can see that the ref's decision should have been an aside. We threw away the points.

Horrible game especially in the 2nd half.
So so stressful.
The missed Pépé air shot
The umpteen blocks from Burnley players.
The penalty you thought was a penalty before *%^@*** realising it is his *%^@*** shoulder.
Then the penalty that should have been and the utter frustration that those idiotic var pricks dont give it.
The missed saka chance to kill the game off.
Then brainless playing it around and not hoofing the ball up the pitch.
Just our own worst enemies and sabotage ourselves once again.
Feels like a defeat.
Think top 7 has gone now

Arteta is right. "if you give any hope to a team in the Premier League they are going to take it.” And we keep doing that.

I suppose the main point is that we are improving.

Of course we created enough chances to win the game and can certainly blame ourselves but there is rarely a bigger chance to score a goal in a game than a penalty. Technically we did create that penalty chance, had it been correctly given and we scored and won 2-1 we'd all be sat here very happy and saying a deserved win based on the dominance we had in the game.
So a ref getting the wrong decision is the fundamental thing that has cost us two points and completely sways the way that game is now viewed.

In other news...
https://www.yahoo.com/news/fifa-gamer-b ... 39251.html

It also feels like we're in one of those horrible periods where every defensive mistake we make is punished with a goal. We never seem to get let off right now. I don't actually see us make many defensive clangers in games but the ones we are making are resulting in goals which isn't always the case. Yes we've got to cut them out but the reality is we're only making 1 or so a game.

https://twitter.com/skysportspl/status/ ... 12?lang=en

This was given as handball earlier in the season for Leicester

It’s exactly that, they looked deflated and mentally beaten and then bang they are straight back in it.

Without the cock up we win that game 2 or 3 nil

I think that decision to not award a penalty today is probably up there with the worst I've seen against us since the Sokratis winning goal was ruled out v Palace a couple of seasons ago, the one where var ref invented a foul by Chambers.

I do think Arsenal have not had the rub of the green with a lot of decisions this year, viewed in isolation many people may make a case for each of those decisions being correct, but then we see time and time again the same instances with the opposite decision up and down the league.

For my money apart from this penalty the worst decision we've had was to rule out a Lacazette near post header v Leicester because VAR deemed Xhaka to be offside and blocking the GK vision. He obviously wasn't and tellingly not a single Leicester player was appealing for it as the goal went in. If a defender or GK have any whiff of thinking they can get a goal chalked off their arms are straight up in the air pleading for all their worth. Another terrible decision

What a disheartening game. Just when you think a victory would really set us up for a crucial run of fixtures, we contrive to throw the game away and it feels like a defeat. I feel a bit sorry for Arteta today as we had good chances, bad luck and that's not his fault. For Xhaka to be involved in yet another calamatous event makes you feel for all his positive atributes he is an unlucky player.

Despite the obvious candidates of Xhaka and VAR for me the game’s turning point came earlier than that. If Saka had stuck away that glorious chance in front of goal I believe that we would have nailed that match stone dead.