The fuhrer is clearly a little bitter ....

Surprised the old man left out the star player, Diego Marajuana.

When it comes to football in England we all know through our own supporter exerience most people north of Watford can't abide Arsenal. For most of living memory we were the biggest and most successful London team and were seen as part of the rich establishment. This got on a lot of northern and midland folks' tits, and still does. We all know this is true by the zeal with which any victory over us is celebrated, or the half-hearted congratulations we get when victorious. Like Australia beating England at cricket, beating Arsenal is much more significant than a sports result. Envy; big time v small time; local pride; tripe and onions v pie and mash or whatever. You can understand why it happens. As time goes by and Chelsea continue to succeed they will probably inherit our role and we will drop back more into the "We beat Tottenham or West Ham, so what?" category. Until then don't be surprised over doubtful decisions by officials who cannot avoid carrying their regional biases into games.

I would like to know why there are no officials from London and the south-east.

Ospina
Debuchy, per, holding
Nelson, Willicombe, elneny, amn
Walcott, iwobi
Welbeck

Chambers plus youth on the bench

Pass to Debuchy on the right hand side.

Grassana Diarra.

What I like most about this piece of insightful analysis is the way you resist any temptations to import your own biases and assumptions into it. Just hard evidence-based reasoning - chapeau, Hoy!

One teeny question, how long does it take this envy transfer to take place? Because by my reckoning Chelsea have won the PL five times since we last did and the ECL once. Is it just that people from the midlands and the north are a bit slow and therefore late to cotton on to the shift in power relations?

That really isn't why I ridicule you though!

I am more likely to TEASE you for a being a little cockeyed and partial at times plus obsessional based on your in-match comments. Mike Dean is a dick and the WBA penalty was ridiculous as pretty much everybody agreed. *%^@ like that really DOES happen to all teams though whoever the ref on the day happens to be.

Pleased that you agree the penalty was a legitimate decision (I don't say it was the only possible one just that it was neither farcical nor evidence of a conspiracy against us), and I'm still not really sure Hazard's "simulation" was quite as bad as people say given that he WAS kicked. It wasn't a dive really, more an exaggerated effort to ensure the ref penalised what he had clearly seen anyway.

So you don't believe Mike Dean to be biased against us, despite a massive statistical disparity over an 18 years sample size (the largest in several decades) that suggest we not only get less preferential decisions from us on average than every other top flight team, but that also we are proportionally over a 3rd less likely with him in charge?

So you don't believe Mike Dean to be biased against us, despite a massive statistical disparity over an 18 years sample size (the largest in several decades) that suggest we not only get less preferential decisions from us on average than every other top flight team, but that also we are proportionally over a 3rd less likely with him in charge?

Yay !

1 - 1 - BFG

Pathetic. A free kick which is closer than a corner, arsenal leave a forest player with a free run right on top of Ospina who heads in completely unchallenged. The 2 arsenal players in the wall clearly play him onside.

What on earth are arsenal doing. There is no plan, no clue and no accountability for the unacceptable way we defend set pieces.

Now we score a set piece! Per prodding one home 1-1

Jon Moss. Sunderland. Join the dots.

I would credit the opposition for a clever set piece myself.

Ooh should have been 2-1

Well it is now.

And a nice goal at that ...

Very much deserved, Ospina had kept us in it with a few good saves prior.

Need to drastically improve second half.