Partey only came on in the 72nd minute which I don't think requires a massive physical effort after a flight from the ACN. Arteta probably asked him whether he was up for it and I'm pretty sure he told him he was. Partey even said it himself in the media “I came back with the mentality to make myself available for the team to get to the final but it did not happen as planned.". With that decision now also potentially impacting the Burnley match.

I agree with TG that the squad is wafer thin at the moment. Loanees being unavailable (a strategic decision to either get them game time to improve and / or transitioning them to the exit lounge), injuries or ACN absentees. I'm guessing that the powers that be are probably giving Arteta another couple of transfer windows at least to build the squad he wants and are ok with the strategy on the loans.

Will be interesting to see what happens in the next week in the transfer market while what's left of the squad gets a much needed rest.

Bernard have you seen this




https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/a ... ssion.html

TBH I don't think Lacazette's miss is as bad as some are suggesting. It's not like it was dead centre and he had to stretch to hit it with outside of the boot with Mee sliding in.

The team is only able to Distribute the ball forward quick enough when Partey is in the side. He’s our only midfield passer who is happy to make dynamic passing good enough to create attacking spaces for our wide players and play on the half turn. I’m honestly surprised anyone would suggest otherwise and this even needs saying, and yes of course he consistently progresses the ball forward.

I’d say bar Saka he’s our most important player in the whole squad as when you take him out of the equation the team doesn’t look right at all. Bar saka and arguably possibly Tomiyasu that is.

It’s another shocking miss. An open goal 6 yards out at a slight angle.

Eventually you run out of excuses. He misses a nailed on goal every week.

Afraid not. I clicked on your link but it wouldn’t open. Same thing happened the last time I tried to open a link you had posted, if my memory serves.

We missed Tomiyasu badly. White wasn't able to link up with Saka, he stayed back most times.

That’s weird the link works

Anyway it’s an article about the TV adaption of the ipcress file coming out on ITV

ITV have given viewers a first look at their upcoming adaptation of spy thriller The Ipcress File.

The upcoming series is adapted from the 1962 Len Deighton novel, later made into a 1965 film, with Joe Cole taking on the lead role of Harry Palmer.

Set in the 1960s, the show follows Palmer, a working-class British sergeant, who becomes a spy to avoid military jail after a series of dodgy dealings.…

I had the same issue with one of your links last week Bernard. Here it is again...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/a ... ssion.html

I agree that Lacazette has been snatching at shots and mistiming them badly throughout his Arsenal career. Just that this one after watching the replay a few times wasn't as easy as it seemed.

Sadly I can’t open your link either.

Thanks Top Gun. I will watch it when it comes out, but it’ll have a lot to live up to.

Getting Top 4 is still in our own hands. Games in hand over MU & WHU. Beat Spurs in the NLD, and we are good.
Quickly get the striker and additional midfielder in!

I hope the captain(s) have a team meeting or Arteta does and re-state to them how far they have come since the first month and if they want CL football its there for them. And that getting top 4 this season, with some canny buys coming in to fill in the gaps, there is no reason they can't start challenging the top 2 like Chelsea are doing.

Tell them don't let this opportunity go.

Hey Bernard.

TG's links are working ok. Are you using a popup blocker at all maybe ?
The links open in a new tab/window so your popup blocker/ad blocker may be stopping them.

You can either allow popups for this site or you might be able to right click the link and copy it, then paste it into the address bar.

Two dumb arses ...... Bobby Fischer had 188

Yeah - We already have players in that position.

Agree with all that
The way Holding White and Tierney .... motor forward with real purpose [ you think here we go ] only get a dose of the tremors ; swivel and then deliver that accurate bullet pass fifteen yards back drives me nuts .

Burnley were there for the taking ...... streamlined service to Martinelli / Saka , throwing more bodies forward in the middle would have produced results

They didn't offer much of a threat ; we could have gone three at the back .

Even with multiple personel changes and apart from the ocassional glimpse of something better we play exactly the same boring , slow , maxi possessional cr**p we did under Wenger .
Treasonous as it might sound ; when they put up four minutes of extra time I didn't want us to score ... my reasoning ..... it will have masked a totally sh***t performance .

I want us to improve in the long run where we perform with some consistency ; play some attractive football and not have to endure Holding , White , Ramsdale , Tierrney , Gabriel having a kick around .

It is such a frustrating team. Against the likes of City, they charged forward and looked like they have arrived.
Then against bottom placed Burnley, and we decided to be conservative.
Still very disappointed to have dropped 2 points.

I’m sure you’re right, my thoughts on our red cards are not always we shouldn’t have got that red card more like I’ve seen countless examples of other teams and players not getting a red card in that same incident. I think we’ve had 3 poor ones against us this season with McArthur volleying Saka, Godfrey stamping on Tomiyasu’s face and now Westwood avoiding a straight red for the stamp on Tierney and even if you come down on the ‘yellow was enough’ (which I get) then to avoid the second yellow for the arm to Gabriel’s face is poor.
Then you have Kane’s tackle on Robertson, Armstrong studs to Laporte’s thigh and that’s just from recent memory.

Henry Winter tweeting
Widespread frustration over inconsistent VAR implementation and need to raise refereeing standards. @premierleague refs incompetent at times, knackered mentally and physically post-pandemic and restricted by PGMOL's timid and naive leadership but their mistakes are honest ones.

Henry is one of the more level headed journalists out there. Interesting to read the comments below his tweet, a huge number of them moan about ‘big 6 bias’. I can see that every club will think they get bad decisions, what would
Be a more interesting way of looking at the fans’ perceptions would be to instead of asking them what decisions have gone against their side in their opinion would be to pick a team in the league and ask if they had any really bad ones against them in that game. Since the start of this season I’ve kept a note of what I consider to be bad decisions in our games, I’ve got 16 decisions, of those 6 in our favour, I tried to be as objectionable as possible, trying to apply the rule that I’d want that if it was the other way round, but sometimes I’m just relying on MOTD or extended highlights who usually show anything they consider controversial. I know many will laugh at the idea of me trying to be objectionable on Arsenal misdemeanours but will put up my list later

Hi Rog. Thanks but I must admit I’ve no idea if I have a pop up blocker. I don’t even know what a pop up blocker is. I have no interest in IT and to be honest would rather get training on how to make pastry than how to work computers or my iPhone. I’m only as able to use them to the limited extent I do because people have stood over me to show me what to do.

I've always found your posts to be very polite, Rich, so good luck with trying to be objectionable.

Objective…..

16 big incorrect decisions in Arsenal games this season.

Brentford (a) Arm wrapped around Leno for 2nd goal not given as a foul
City (a). Laporte hand to the face of Chambers in the face for the 2nd goal not given as a foul in var check
Spurs (h). Possible penalty not given for a foul by White on Kane on the line of the penalty area
Palace (h). McArthur really should have been sent off for his kick on Saka, only booked
Leicester (a). Evans could have been sent off for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity for the foul on Aubameyang. He was only booked
Watford (h) potential foul in the build up to the Smith Rowe goal AMN blocking their player
Newcastle (h) Ødegaard holding on to a Newcastle player from a corner, penalty not given
Martinelli barged in the face as shooting late on could have been a penalty
Man U (a). Maguire holding back Tomiyasu by the arm from a set piece could have been a penalty
Everton (a) Godfrey stamp to Tomiyasu face not given as a red
West Ham (h) penalty and red card for Coufal fouling Lacazette. Moyes had no complaints but some ex refs have said it shouldn’t have been given
**Leeds (a) xhaka foul on Raphina - only out in here because people will remember it. Should have been a yellow but I don’t think it’s enough for a red. Not a game changing decision
Man City (h) Ødegaard fouled by Ederson, viewed by VAR as no penalty
Forest (a) FA Cup. White has his shirt pulled in the area. Could have been a penalty
**Liverpool (h) League Cup. Partey 2nd yellow could have been a straight red
Burnley (h) Westwood should have been sent off, either for a straight red or for a 2nd yellow card

The two I’ve put ** against: one I think was a yellow not a red, and the other people may argue was a straight red but he was sent off anyway so has no effect on that game.
Take out those 2 and it’s 10 against 4 for.

Do your worst…..**takes cover**

And he went crackers! Did you follow Carlsen's title defence against Nepo?

I know someone who is well over 150 & like many people with really high IQs is socially challenged.

Don't disagree with most of those. I think Xhaka should've been sent off against Leeds, but if I'm not mistaken we were up 3-0 at the time and there's no way we would've dropped points even with 10 men in that game. It also means Xhaka should've missed the games against Sunderland, Norwich and Man City, and only Norwich was a league win where you might argue the result could've been different had we been without him (I personally think we could've beaten them comfortably without Xhaka, but that's obviously just speculation).

That's what grinds me about the missed call on Kane against Liverpool. It was a nailed on red, which would've seen Tottenham play with ten men for 70 minutes - very possible that Liverpool wins that game if that's the case. Kane should've also missed the games against West Ham in the league cup, and also Crystal Palace and Southampton in the league. Two games where Kane scored that might've gone down differently with Tottenham missing him, so that's possibly five points they could've missed out on.

wow oh wow

A brilliantly comprehensive list, Rich. I'd love for someone a bit more unbiased than us to assess it. Erm ... anyone know anyone unbiased?

Surely head of referees Mike Riley should qualify.....

Struggling to see where the immediate obvious value is with any of the strikers supposedly available/attainable is
Vlahovic, Isak, Watkins, DLC, David, Schick....

I think what would great for a club is they could find someone from the supporters who they could hire. Someone who lives, dies, breathes the club. That would have to be Rich if I had to pick one. Fair minded, no drama, just Arsenal.

The one thing I liked about watching the Sunderland documentary is that the employees were local and loved the club. From the workers close to the seat of power down to the person cleaning the locker room. I imagine we have similar employees but we live in a large metropolitan city with many clubs and people who answered an advert for a job possibly and didn't know us from Adam.

In smaller cities that have 1 club I have to assume they are all fans.

Very flattered but quite humbly I'm sure I have nothing to offer Arsenal that they don't already have and hire hundreds of people far, far more qualified and brilliant at what they do that some armchair fan with a grand masterplan for what Arsenal should be doing each day! If Arsenal hired me in any capacity and paid me the same I'm paid in my current job and gave me a full time role I'd pretty quickly be fired as being well out of my depth!
Doesn't stop me enjoying talking and analysing everything I can about Arsenal and wider football in general, but for now this can just be for the forum!

Of all the strikers on our radar or rumoured to be on our radar the easiest deal to do is Isak simply because the player has a £75m release clause. Perhaps we'll trigger it in the last hours of the window to take us off another Spanish club's Xmas card list.
From what I've seen of Isak he's quite different to Vlahovic. Isak looks like a skillfull dribbler, Vlahovic more an all round good goal-scorer.

I am quite certain fans of the opposing clubs would routinely give different views because, like you, they will be hopelessly biased. Supporters of one of the clubs is not where I would look for rational opinions on refereeing decisions. I once told you about The Gooner previously running articles on the views expressed on online forums of teams we were playing. Years ago there was a game against Manchester City when you had been crucifying the referee for giving decisions in City’s favour.

The next Gooner came out not too long after the game, so I still remembered your reaction to that referee. The Gooner outlined what the City fans were saying about him, because they felt every decision he gave favoured us. They thought he was either an Arsenal season ticket holder or hated City for some other reason like being a United fan.

It is worth remembering that judgements on referees are subjective, just like many of the decisions they make.

The fact that you’re even bothering to keep lists of refereeing decisions probably doesn’t surprise me, but I think may be explained by you getting something out of moaning about them. I doubt it’s pleasure. Possibly a relief of frustrations?

From your list, I can’t remember most of them, if any of them. For one example, you say at Leicester, Evans could have been sent off but was only booked? We won the game anyway. Who cares? Well, you obviously do, which is the rationale for my suspicion you get something out of moaning about refereeing decisions, and of course VAR.

You’re clearly an intelligent man and I honestly respect many of your opinions on Arsenal. But when it comes to referees, I think you go grossly over the top. I know you won’t follow my advice here, and why should you? But if I was you I would watch Arsenal matches when you don’t have access to your computer, smartphone, or whatever else you use to post here.

Even more money than Vlahovic. I can’t see that either. That transfer fee would be pretty crazy I have to say.

I wonder why Aubameyang didn’t want to live in Saudi Arabia. The wimp

FabrizioRomano
on Vlahovic: "#Arsenal have tried in every way to complete the deal in January. Never rule out surprises in the last week, even though its a very complicated negotiation"

Hi Bernard, I take on board all your thoughts and comments and in many cases I suspect you are entirely right in my rationale and frustrations with referees.
I always enjoy reading your posts and responses to my posts and think many of us on here will become entrenched in our views on any footballing subject - perhaps my New Year resolution should be to take a step back from the areas of football that annoy and frustrate me and try to be more objective.
I did think a few people would find it funny that I kept a list.....Part of my reason for keeping this list, and really trying to be as subjective as possible after the event (and my initial in game outburst) was to see if it does feel like we bad decisions - or as I've more come round to feel, not that we get bad decisions but we don't 'get away' with decisions that other routinely do.
On the Evans one, I think if you are going to keep a list of bad decisions then you have to include them all irrespective if we feel they affect the final result. If you only complain about the ref in games you lose it sort of undermines the argument.

We're never going to have referees at the level that satisfies fans as they'll always disagree with decisions. One thing I think would make a big difference is that when the ref and the var ref are debating a decision that we can hear them much like rugby. I think if fans heard the rationale behind the decision we'd have a better understanding of the rules and the job refs do - we probably still wouldn't agree but still.
In that respect this guy is quite a good follow on twitter as he dissects the controversial decisions from the weekend with respect to the rules and what the officials are looking for.
https://twitter.com/DaleJohnsonESPN