Did you read what Souness said? It was entirely reasonable and there was lots of praise for MLS.

Souness may have been over the top in his criticism of Pogba occasionally, but ultimately he was correct. An extremely self-indulgent lazy footballer.

I don't know why the PL have persisted with the "drawing the lines" nonsense when there is an automated solution available. It's so much better in the CL and international tournaments.

The use of VAR for tackles is definitely problematic, because as you say, McQ, it is subjective. I'm not sure slo-mo replays help either as they frequently make a tackle look worse. Watch a slo-mo replay of a sneeze and it is a dreadfully violent action.

Yes, the thing is with all Arsenal commentary is it’s fine if they treat everyone that way when they do the same as Arsenal. When Arsenal are singled out, or an Arsenal player singled out, or a black player singled out it’s going to cause problems.

Souness said Pogba’s haircut was part of the problem! Never a problem for any other poorly performing footballer who died their hair?

It’s the singling out that is the problem when you could tar so many with the same brush.

Not a peep has been said in the past about controversial celebrations, MLS was hardly much to write home about, did nothing to an opponent or opposition fans directly - there have been far far worse and never mentioned.

If Souness and others were being fair they would have said “great player, got a big future, really like his confidence, he got given some and gave a bit back, I’ve never called it out as a problem before in fact I’ve enjoyed that bit of needle between players before and actively revelled in it in other games, so there are much bigger things to be worried about and for me to comment on as a pundit”

No goal line technology in the cup and Newcastle are given a goal by a linesman where it really isn’t obvious whether the ball has crossed the line or not.

Just saw that. Ridiculous award from linesman. Looked like it didn't cross to me. No way he should give that.

The plan was to bring in the automated system in October, I’m not sure what happened.

Sorry Rich, but you are being unbelievably precious here to the point that you are suggesting that Souness is racist and/or bizarrely categorising being an Arsenal.player as equivalent to prejudice based on race.

He made a largely positive statement about MLS and suggested that a player at the very beginning of his career would be better off not taking the piss out of established players. Whether you agree with that or not, he wasn't having a go.

And as for Pogba, the haircut stuff was presumably saying that Pogba was more interested in his image and social media profile than improving as a footballer. Ferguson got rid of Pogba. Keane had no time for him. I would imagine that Arteta would show him the door in no time.

But the point is why say it at all, there has been thousands of examples of players doing far worse than MLS and never being called out, sometimes they are even praised for their feistiness.

Souness is part of the old guard of ‘proper football men’ who have a ridiculous problem with so much of modern football or the modern footballer.

What MLS has had to put up with from all quarters in the media has been outrageous, and he has been completely unfairly singled out in a way no other young player has been over an incredibly trivial issue and there is not one high profile pundit who has come to any kind of defence - yes they’ve said he’s a talented player but not one of them has said ‘look it’s a bit of a storm in a teacup - let the kid get on with his football’
So yes I am being precious over this because the treatment of MLS has been a complete pile on in the media - and when you see so many double standards and so many worse players protected it is simply biased reporting with an agenda - and the agenda isn’t simply let’s be controversial for more engagement.

So Newcastle’s Lewis Miley (18) put in an awful tackle today on a Birmingham player who had to be stretchered off with a suspected broken leg. If there was var in the fa cup it could easily have been reviewed as a red card.
Will there be a media pile on for a genuinely dangerous tackle that has put a fellow pro out of the game…..?
Considering the noise that was made and still is for MLS trip and wrongly awarded red it will be very interesting to see the comparison.

So a worse tackle
A badly injured opponent
Both 18
Both talented and starting out in their career
One plays for Arsenal (southern ‘posh rich London’ team) one plays for Newcastle (northern working class team)
One is white one is black

MLS was called the ‘real villain’, and had told to keep himself in check…..let’s see the reaction for Miley

https://x.com/cf11_news/status/18883332 ... -j6VVZXEoA

Aaron Ramsey playing for Cardiff knocked Stoke out of the FA Cup on penalties today and made sure he gave it back to the Stoke fans. Love it. Absolute scum club and fans

MLS is a young English player who has burst onto the scene. That's why there is commentary. It's not due to some imaginary anti-Arsenal bias. In consecutive weeks he was incorrectly red-carded and scored his first goal in a hammering of the champions, following it with a mocking celebration. He has been in the sporting headlines. It's a story. There was almost universal agreement that the red card was a mistake ("the worst decision in a long time" being the comment from MOTD's leading pundit). There has been loads of praise for him and some criticism of the celebration.

The notion that there is racism at play here is frankly ridiculous and so is any categorisation of Arsenal.players as victims of discrimination equivalent to racial prejudice.

Agreed.

The point that it’s in the headlines that a young player is good and burst on the scene isn’t the point - it’s that the media can choose which direction they take that story and yes whilst most agreed that the red card should be rescinded they all had a choice to make over the celebration and pretty universally the choice of comment has been negative. Most players would get a neutral response, some would receive a positive response yet MLS received an almost universal negative response. It was a response to an unprovoked attack on him by Haaland which along with him throwing a ball at Gabriel’s head was said was ‘funny’ and we love these rivalries. As soon as an Arsenal player did even 10% of what Haaland did they jumped on him, collectively. Do you not think this incident when compared to thousands of other similar incidents (Vardy, Maupay) shows there is an anti-Arsenal bias in the media? I mean the whole thing gathered such momentum that the premier league released a statement saying they would be looking closely at punishments for ‘mocking’ celebrations
The fact I’ve seen plenty of rival fans say ‘just get on with it’ and yet hardly any prominent voice in the media say ‘we’re making a mountain out of a molehill’ shows a lot.
I think there is a clear difference between how young black footballers are treated (in general and as a collective) to young white footballers in this country by the media. There’s literally countless examples.
Foden bought a house for his mum at 17, ‘young starlet buys mum £2m house’
Tosun Adarabioyo does exactly the same “Young Manchester City footballer, 20, on £25,000 a week splashes out on mansion on market for £2.25m despite having never started a Premier League match”.

https://arseblog.com/2025/02/ramsey-remembers/

Agree with Arseblog on this. It's vitriolic and tinged in racism for me, mixed up with the anti-Arsenal bias too. Vile journalism.

The draws have killed us in the league and when I look back at every single one I feel like we should have won the game rather than saying ‘we’ll take the draw’ or ‘we got away with one there’
Brighton and City red cards left a feeling of 4 points robbed
Liverpool and Chelsea we were ahead and conceded late equalisers
Brighton away is a penalty you’ll never see elsewhere
Everton at home is probably the result I’m most annoyed about this season - just have to be winning that game
2-0 up at home to villa was 2 big points dropped
Even in the only game we came from behind to draw -away to Fulham- we should have won in the end and nearly did but for a insignificant offside on a wide pass

Rich,

The press and social media stuff is all just noise.

As an Arsenal fan I am more worried by how we got dumped out of two cups (probably our best chance of silverware this season) despite being the better side because ultimately we couldn't get ourselves out of 1st gear quickly enough and couldn't take the chances we did create. Not to mention that opposition teams seem to score with a high portion of the few chances they do create.

I thought the 2nd leg at Newcastle was especially dire, too many 4 out of 10 performances compounded by a toothless forward line. Only Nwaneri came out of the game with any credit, he looked far more dangerous than Martinelli.

Our lack of attacking options is now so poor that people are more concerned that we might not make top four than whether we can maintain a title challenge.

AI is definitely capable of doing things that involve making subjective decisions. Its scary what it can do. I'm a complete luddite but those of my colleague who are enthusiatic about such things are even using it to mark essays now. What exactly the point of having humans is a question yet to be fed into AI. I'm afraid it might come up with the correct answer.

In fact AI might work quite well as a referee because it would be comparing any incident with a million other similar incidents in its database. What we call 'being subjective' is actually more to do with consistency that genuine subjectivity.

Biases? With the tech-bros controlling the algorithms, who knows? Presumably not too many come from oop north.

The only exception was the City one. I have to admit I would have taken a draw at any time until just before they equalised, even before the sending off.

But we really have dropped a vast number of unnecessary points. The , Villa, Fulham and Everton ones were just dreadful. Just the sort of games that Liverpool manage to win despite having an off day.

An example of how impotent our forward line feels.

If Liverpool have two big chances in a game they would want them both to fall to Salah, City would want them both to fall to Haaland.

We wouldn't want either of them to fall to Havertz. Or anyone else really.

Ok, so I am being a little facetious but you can see my point.

I know our goals record is not indicative of a side who are wasteful in front of goal but it sure feels that way.

That’s true, a draw away at City is always a good point - especially as this was before their implosion. I think my view is clouded by us dominating them just recently with 11 men and being just 30 seconds away from the win.

It's Rich. He has to whine about something.

Total nonsense. Race wasn't mentioned at all or even hinted out. J disagree with the term wind your neck in but apart from that it was fine. Arseblog loves to vmbring race into lots of things. Great for the clicks.

Still top and hasn’t played for 50 days. He makes everyone better in our team

They're not going to mention it directly are they! A lot of bias is subconscious and it's the way it always tends to be certain players which are targeted in a certain manner by the media. There's no doubt in my eyes, that young black players are held up to a different set of standards and rules than young white players on average. We saw the same with Sterling.....many white players have done similar to Sterling but it was never covered in such a vindictive and vitriolic manner.

So what’s your excuse?

Football has to have a whole dedicated campaign for racism in football. It’s not far fetched at all that young black men are subjected to overt racism, let alone the very subtle variety Rich is mentioning. I think some of us might need to think about whether you are bristling and reacting rather than weighing up what’s happening. How likely is it that no racial bias in involved in any reporting? Because that’s what you’re saying.

100%.

ANOTHER campaign. Literally there is one all the time including a No To Racism logo near the clock of the screen when matches are televised. Given Souness's history of being a player. a manager and a pundit do you think he is a racist?

That's a charmingly subtle way of accusing someone of racism. Absolutely nobody here has said that all reporting is free from racial prejudice.

Few reports that Saka is ahead of schedule and expected back in early March rather than end of March. It would be huge to get him fit for the CL KO games in mid March. Ben White hopefully is close soon too.

Just none in this case right?

If you want to hear me calling you racist go right ahead, that’s not what I said and I think you know it.

After the Newcastle game Calum Wilson was interviewed with Joe Willock and came out and said the squad had supported Joe because he’d been subjected to racist abuse online.

3 black players missed penalties for England and immediately racially abused. Go and see what Tyrone Mings wrote to Priti Patel after that happened after she condemned the taking of the knee

It’s worse in other countries. Football still has a racism problem.

To suggest that in some way, probably unconscious bias, that a young black player is treated differently to a young white player…..or that a player from Arsenal is treated differently from a player from a non big 6 team (for example) or that a player from the most successful London team might be treated differently than a player from a northern team (London in itself being a lightening rod for many working class people from the north) - I don’t think it’s far fetched - or certainly not as far fetched he’d as confidently proclaiming there is no issue with any of these things that may cause bias at all!

I really do think the Arsenal London vs the north thing has a lot of weight to it. People still put a lot of weight in the class system in this country, and it’s ok to punch up but crass to punch down, so many people (particularly in the public eye) fall over themselves to try to persuade people they are in fact working class (our own Prime Minister included) shows the general distaste for those that HAVE, and if there is going to be any club in the prem that represents the gap between the working class north and the elite soft southerners it’s Arsenal. These views percolate so many aspects of society, 90% of refs from northern towns and cities, grown up with these rivalries and bias. It would be naive in the extreme to think their entire being wouldn’t be influenced.

He’s writing for the Daily “hurrah for the black shirts” Mail !

Whilst he may not be intentionally racist he’s planting his flag to make cash off a newspaper that tries to divide and had absolute historical links to facism.

There might be an argument he’s unconsciously racist. Imagine if Myles had done what Giggs or Rooney got up to.

Bad celebration Myles nawty, nawty, nawty . Wot a load of absolute bollocks

I can only dream of getting Saka and Martinelli back by early March.......

do we want Liverpool to go out of cup? Personally I'd prefer they stay in and get clobbered with more fixtures.

Yes definitely want them to stay in. In the list of teams I don’t want to win the fa cup Liverpool wouldn’t really be in my top 3. Keep them in it for as long as possible.

This front 3 for Liverpool is the 3 they’d have to play if they lost Salah, Nunez, Gakpo - which is exactly like us missing Saka, Jesus, Martinelli. I know they’ve also played a lot of youngsters but just 1 shot on target for Liverpool with that front 3 against bottom of the championship. The idea that Liverpool wouldn’t have struggled if they’d had our injuries is fanciful

Yep, it does show how lucky they have been with injuries.

Slot coming over here not respecting our FA Cup traditions, arrogantly fielding a weakened team thinking he can just walk through a Plymouth side, such disrespect and deserved to be knocked out. Still got a lot to learn in our country…..am I doing it right?

Well what did you mean when you said "Some of us might need to think about whether you are bristling and reacting rather than weighing up what’s happening" because I presume that was aimed at me?