Who rattled your cage?

Blinkers don't stop you seeing .......

.... they are used on horses to stop them being distracted by other horses alongside , they have full vision out front

...... always here to help

Er ...ahhmmm ....... replying to your post

" we need to adapt and give ourselves a better advantage " ..... wonderful blousy prose for CHEAT .

I agree it wont change , because authorities shy away from tough decisions .... they went as far as coin a non threatening word for diving ....... simulation .

What a bunch of wet soft cocks ... with Jock Wallace alongside I'd love to be addressing the Professional Footballers Association end of year function . Three game ban for diving .

Grunting stopped at Wimbledon ...you grunt you lose a point , grunt again .... the game ..third grunt .... the match . Too easy

Times like this I just think: what would Richie do?

http://dailycannon.com/2018/01/eden-haz ... t-arsenal/

At least he's admitted it.

Good news. Mark Hughes is available for a managers position.

He also said a penalty was the right decision. Even if he went down theatrically to make sure he got a penalty, it doesn't mean he wasn't fouled.

Hazard has of course publicly claimed it was a penalty otherwise he would be opening himself up to the simulation charge. The rest seems to be the opinion of the author.

By his own admission to Auclair, Hazard has dived to win this penalty as the contact from Bellerin was not sufficient to bring him down. He has conned the referee into making that call. Cheating it used to be called. Chelsea have form for it.

Exactly Bernard ........ the little coot from Northern Ireland missed that small detail .

Who pulled your chain? :)
No, I had seen that earlier and knew someone would treat it as a lifeline....money was on Daz but with Bernard bouncing in I'm afraid this one still has years to run!!

Not at all. I still haven't seen a replay of it. But practically everyone apart from you, bubblechris and Wenger seem to think it was a penalty because Bellerin kicked Hazard, which was a foul. That Hazard went down theatrically to make sure he got the penalty seems little more than a side issue. If he kicked him, and has anyone denied Bellerin did, then it was surely both a foul and a penalty?

I was about to post this as well. Crazy money. Not worth it but 100 mil plus may start being the figure for top players is almost there now. 75-90 million is not an outrageous amount any longer.

Gee shucks Niall I didn't see you lurking in the background ....... no disrespect intended especially to an administrator .... touches his forlock furiously .....

The poxy little country fresh from sorting out the West indies in the cricket , set about demolishing the Pakistanis yesterday , they were in all sorts of trouble before rain halted proceedings .

Of the current 18 Premiership referees seven came up through Lancashire, Cheshire and Manchester football, and four through Yorkshire. The remaining seven come from Birmingham (2), Wiltshire (2), and one each from Northumberland, Leicestershire and Berkshire/Bucks. So, not one of them came up through the London FA or the adjoining county FAs, and not one was born in or very near to London - Graham Scott of Oxford being the closest. A remarkably unbalanced state of affairs in the running of the game.

Even assuming they do their best to exercise professional judgement in as honest a way as possible, refs are only too human, and will surely have from their backgrounds personal likes and dislikes of certain football clubs, probably developed in childhood? We all know how London is not beloved by people from the midlands and north, so it is quite possible there is some institutional bias against the capital's teams. When you consider the age of most of the Premiership men in black, Arsenal was the predominant London team in their formative years, so it is feasible our club attracts a disproportionate level of wrong decisions, even compared to other London sides. In years to come Chelsea may have that honour!

Jack Wilshere is officially the most fouled player in the Premier League

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... layer.html

47 degrees C here today. A record temperature ...

This being football I suppose it is fine to just deploy your hypothesis and rely on "surelys" and "it is feasible" and "we all know" to back it up. The chippy Northerner theory has of course hidden dangers as I am quite sure a moments reflection will tell you. "They" don't like "Us".

What about when a Yorkshire ref is in charge of a Lancashire club? You may not know this from your vantage point dahn the Old Kent Road but there's no great love lost there. Could Mourinho have a point - is it principally an anti red rose bias from those bastards across the Penines? Where does the West Midlands stand in all of this geographical bias - I imagine any ref from Sutton Coldfield will take a dim view of the Blues and who knows where the Black Country stands when it comes to giving soft pens? Even among the soft southern refs what if one of them had an unfortunate experience with a jellied eel in Rotherhithe which has solidified into a particular hostility towards clubs from south-east London.

It won't be long before we find out - I imagine killer evidence like "refs are only human" will be on its way very shortly.

Anthony Taylor is from Wythenshawe in Manchester. You don't get much chippier than THAT so let's crunch those numbers.

Hmm. OK so he sent off Moses in the cup final. He had a set-to with Wenger (these northerners are pretty uncosmopolitan as well and often don't get modern abstract art in the way Arsene does so that makes sense). He gave Chelsea a penalty against us OK that doesn't quite fit but everybody knows that exceptions prove the rule and under the law of averages then surely it is feasible for one or two rogue decisions to find their way through.

Yes it's all falling into place now, you just need to do the geog!

Craig Joubert...a Saffer in love with NZ ...

Taylor shocks the comms yet again. Gives a red for a trip when it should have been a yellow.

Why always him?

He didn't shock the comms against Chelsea though. Everybody in the studio felt it was OK to award a penalty including the notoriously anti-Arsenal Thierry Henry. As did Dermot Gallagher (Irish so hates all English clubs equally) with the benefit of several slo-mo replays. As did the commentators for the Times, the Telegraph and the Guardian...

I'm currently in Manila and its gorgeous weather here...at least for me. A slight hint of rain so its gray clouds, breezy, not hot at all. Night time warm with a nice breeze. Don't have to run the AC at all. Hope it holds up till I leave here for my next destination (Malaysia).

Its summer there right? I have never been to any of the Oceana countries (Oz, NZ but will visit for sure, thinking of NZ to settle down in permanently actually) but from what I understand its summer when places like America and England are in their traditional 'winter months' like December and January, right?

Hmm..interesting regarding England, the economy and this stats impact on politics. True?
http://www.businessinsider.com/falling- ... byn-2018-1

It wasn't that long ago you were going to do your centennial flounce. Why don't you sod off and support another team or chat on their forum.

Back to Arsenal matters......................

So now Arsene has got everyone talking about the regional diversity of premiership refs eh. Yawn

All while no defensive training drills have been given to our players for over a decade.

I want us to win obviously because I think this cup and the other two cups are are our only real chance at a trophy. In a crazy to think this but the Europa cup may be easier to win than the domestic cups.

Anyway, found a sports bar here, saw some of the FA Cup ties last night. Mostly Brits (Oz, NW) because football and rugby are advertised there. Maybe see some gooners for the match. My guess is Wenger will play a very weakened squad looking forward to the Chelsea match on Wednesday and it being a semi final match.

Harsh when I’ve learned so much from you like Schrodinger’s Hazard which can be simultaneously seen and not seen by refs.

Papers say we are close to signing Jonny Evans for 25 million. I know we are desperate for defensive reinforcements but that doesn't seem very forward thinking signing given he's 30 and hasn't set the world alight. It's probably arsene trying to wind up that new scout.

Oh did you see the comments Arsene made about that new Sven bloke By the way? He didn't come across as bitter at all did he. Pretty much said the appointment was needless as we know all the players in Europe anyway.

In the movie after this cute meet they’d learn to love each other and lead us to glory overcoming hurdles like northern refs on their incredible journey.

If you can't understand that, in that situation, the dramatic collapse to the floor would obscure whether the kick was soft or not, even if he did see it, then more fool you.

You hate AW, you apparently hate the Arsenal, why do you come on here?

.

Now while it's well known I like blokes who tell it how it is etc etc ... I do like people with a bit more subtlety ... this is brilliant

forget Owen Coyle , Sam Allardyce , Alf Ramsay ... I want this guy http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/42593337

I like it, closes eyes pictures the scene ....

"Wenger grabs Sven by the hand as they both walk into the sunset, Elgars Nimrod begins to play as both their silhouettes are seen on the horizon basking in the glory of success... cuts to end credits "

With Monreal and Kolasinac injured and Elneny and Coq not having had much game time I expect Maitland-Niles to start at LB or LWB again today. The above 2 to start in central mid. A front 3 of Iwobi/Welbeck/Walcott. Nelson at either RWB in a 5 man defence or (much more excitingly) as part of a 3 man attack behind a central striker. This would be my preferred team
Ospina
Debuchy, Per, Holding, AMN
Coq, Elneny
Theo, Iwobi, Nelson
Welbeck

I think the fact Wenger hasn't rotated his team much over the busy Xmas period tells you everything you need to know about the strength of our squad

To give expression to my anxiety and self-loathing.

I'd flabberghasted to find a sane person who isn't ..... much as I'd like to pour myself a stiff rum and hang around and watch a few more rounds of you and Bubble ..... alas I must head to bed ...... Arsenal on at 5 am here

But while I’m here I can learn right?

How exactly does one event obscure the event that preceded it?

It's always great to make records.