Well done Kola, soak it to Ayew

good question, I was going to ask the same thing

Would we have scored if we had 11 men?

Well done Luiz

I don't know Nostradamus, what do you think?

The game hinged around his awful performance .

Dropped 2 points today .... should have gone for the second when we were well in control of the game

I hate games like that. The ref doesn’t stop us winning, But the sheer inconsistency is staggering.
AMN booked for first foul. Pépé booked for goodness knows what. Lacazette booked for a totting up process on his 3rd foul yet Ayew escaped a booking all game despite 7 fouls! No yellow for Zaha for a blatant dive in the box. The ref was so heavily influenced by the home crowd today.

It is so frustrating to see what little we have to do to get a yellow card and can yet be kicked from pillar to post, usually away from home, with nothing.

The Aubameyang red is annoying, I’ll happily accept it as a red if every other dangerous tackle is also a red, we’ve seen Pépé scissor tackled from behind on more than 1 occasion this season.

Var really doesn’t like us when we play palace. I think there have been 4 reviews in our two games against them with every review going palaces way

The game changed on Torreira's withdrawal, he was the one stopping Palace playing. As soon as he went off it all changed. The tenacity, sharpness and reading of the game he provides is was sorely missed.

Really disappointed with Pépé today, he has talented feet but boy does his game need some work.

We really needed to turn the 1st half domination into chances and we suffered the consequences of not doing that.

Not really. Nothing that he did had an obvious impact on the scoreline.

1-1 was about right based on what football was played.

Now that I do agree with.

Urgh, how lucky and *%^@ were Palace?? Torreria off, deflected goal, Aubameyang Red on VAR, how many fouls did Ayew make in the end?

Good news is I guess the team didn’t capitulate and could have won it on that Pépé chance but that was a horrible *%^@ game, but you have to win those too, there are a few scrappy teams like that and we need to get to the stage where we can impose a bit more, if the laws of chance don’t turn on us all the flaming time..

So Aubameyang out for 3 games, Torreira maybe out for a few as well, we need to start catching some breaks.

Also another example of a player unable to win the ball and just pushes his marker in to the blokes team mate. You see it with players pushing defenders in to GK as they shield the ball back or pushing a player over advertising hoardings when it’s been shielded out. They are all yellow cards.
The lack of know-how and understanding of players and the game (not the rules) is awful from our current group of refs.

Apart from the ‘5 yards onside’ Aubameyang goal at old Trafford have we had a single VAR decision go our way this year? I know VAR is correcting more wrong decisions than we would have without it but it just seems like we’re not getting the rub of the green with it at all.

Pépé plays like he's trying to prove his fee than doing what is best for the squad to win.

Losing Aubameyang at Chelsea will be a tough pill to swallow. Start Martinelli.

Let's appeal the red card and see if we get a reduction some how.

I wonder what those Palace fans who made and put up those anti VAR posters are now thinking?

So so frustrating.
We really needed to capitalise on our dominant start because we weren't going to be able to keep up that dominance for the whole 90 and with Zaha in the team they were always going to have a few moments.
Really needed a 2nd when we were winning.
Felt we let them off the hook and allowed the c***** to turn it into a scrap.
Needed the 3 points to stay in touch with teams above us who have easy games today.
Really hope torreira is not badly injured as we need him.
Aubameyang was silly but so many times that's just a yellow.
Pépé shot. Why not go in!!!!!
Arrrggghhhhhh

I can't believe you've taken part in team sports if that's what you think LTG.

With ten men there wasn't much chance we'd get more from the game than a draw and even risk losing it. Just gotta write this off, learn from it and move on and progress.

Yeah if you’re getting hammered and then complain about 1 little thing that’s a bit embarrassing, but the tone of how a referee officiates has a huge impact when it’s closer than that, which is why before every international test in rugby and domestically also tbf, you have the same debate and the same attempt to influence the referee to call things in a way that suits you.

Maybe because in rugby there seems to be more of a lean towards the obvious differences between the styles of referees and the stronger view of the umpires rule is law. Which is why they try to change the umpire not the decision. Maybe.

I watch a lot of rugby union and whilst the ref can still be frustrating they are far more consistent than football refs. You may not like the way they are continually punishing a collapsing scrum for one team but they explain why it is being punished and it’s up to the other team to stop doing it. In football you have refs who give a yellow then let the next guy off.....book a player for tallying up 3 fouls but ignore the guy on 7 fouls. It is totally arbitrary and they are pretty much all to a man completely oblivious to any kind of gamesmanship and small advantages footballers try to eek out in every single game. Ball goes out for a defensive throw right by the corner flag yet every single time that defender is allowed to take the throw 10 yards further up the pitch. Same with free kicks, just always trying to gain a tiny advantage it’s almost like a ‘haha I got that one last you ref’ even if there is really zero advantage in the context of the game.

He could have booked Ayew in the first half. He could have given us less yellows. So how does that affect the scoreline then?

I hope the football gods will bless Tottenham for 2 hours. Then go back to damning them.

Agree LTG. Nitpicking over referees decisions is pointless. I didn't notice any major errors, though I thought Ayew deserved a yellow and AMN didn't.

Potentially by affecting the game itself, the mindset of players, but these are all ifs and buts now.

Anyway, I’m sorry for this but...

come on Tottenham!

Whenever I want them to win they lose anyway, even my treachery backfires. They just bring me no joy.

Two main wishes for the rest of the season (among a few), Liverpool lose and we beat Tottenham and get a 'two fer' with Mourinho in charge.

Liverpool should have been 1 up with a free header but other than that Tottenham looking good. Give mourinho time to prepare for one match and he's tough to beat.

Mother, father, cocker spaniel. C'mon scum.

I agree that the odd yellow or foul or not don’t affect the score, but a constant stream of yellows for one team whilst letting the other team off mean that the team getting the yellows have to be half a yard slower to every press or every tackle.
Someone like Ayew was obviously pressing and harassing the defence, he made 7 fouls and must have stopped us building as we wanted from the back, of he goes in the book every arsenal defender has an extra second on the ball (for example). It is tiny details but they do influence the way a game can develop especially for a team who is intent on getting in your face

The AG good luck charm can only do so much.

Don’t know if it’s still the case, but I thought bans could previously be increased by frivolous appeals. Appealing against Aubameyang’s sending off would be totally frivolous so if that rule is still in place, appealing would be far more likely to get him an extra game ban than a game less. It was a sending off all day long.

Hi B,
What was amazing is all the fouls the ref let Ayew get by with.

Hi, can’t say I noticed them at the game. We’re any really naughty or was it just the sheer number of them?

Well spurs appealed Son kicking his studs in to the chest of Rudiger and didn’t get an extra game fan for frivolous appeal. That was as clear as you want for violent conduct

The frustrating thing was he made a point of booking Lacazette for tallying up of fouls, none of which were yellows on their own, so he showed he was aware of accumulated fouls by players needing a yellow.

I think Opta tweeted Ayew is the first player to commit 7 fouls in a game and not be booked

No way was Son’s appeal as frivolous as Aubameyang’s would be. Sorry, not even remotely comparable.

Aubameyang misses sheff Utd at home, Chelsea away and Bournemouth away in the cup. He’d have likely been rested for the cup game.

Martinelli and Nelson can fill in on the left. Noticed when Martinelli came on today he went on the right and Pépé to the left.

When you see who has scored our away goals this season it’s clear what we’ll miss against chelsea.

Arteta has made us a lot more difficult to score against, we’re giving up fewer goals, fewer chances and fewer shots. Now we need to get going in the other direction. Having zero goal threat from any of our midfield is not great

Aubameyang’s tackle is much more likely to injure a player than Son’s kick out but in terms of the rules of the game I think Son’s is a more obvious red because there is very little leeway in kicking out at an opponent off the ball. Aubameyang type tackles are let off red cards far more often that Son’s kick to the chest in my view