It looked borderline and the ref didn’t give it. Has to “jump out of the screen” to change the on field decision…

Or this is what I was repeating under my breath over and over after seeing the replay…

Interestingly Arteta is complaining about offside from the initial ball in because although the guy very obviously offside doesn’t play the ball he blocks Gabriel. Arteta said something to the effect of they were told those off the ball blocks would be called offside.

The second one looks clearer and should be a matter of fact rather than a subjective offside

I did think that we looked more threatening with Trossard on the pitch. He seemed to change things up a bit, and they found it hard to contain him.

There's a good argument he should start.

Agreed. But City wont sit with 10 behind the ball. Martinelli with blistering pace and space to run in to could be more threatening. Martinelli was on fire against City last year in the home game.

Not a good day for Var all round today.
The offside in our game
A clear handball for a penalty not given for Chelsea v West Ham
And in the Brighton game they seemed to draw the offside line from the wrong defender when there was another defender further back

Needed a few quenchers in the cannonbury tavern after that so back late,

General thoughts

Martinelli so poor. I’m half expecting an announcement tomorrow he has an injury that will keep him out for several weeks. Just a gut feeling, he was beaten to an attack by our full backs. Somethings really up

Ben white. Is the right back experiment over? Strong in defence but in the final third not much. Tommy has to start next game I think.

Eddie, feel bad saying it but when he’s not scoring penalty box poaches he’s not doing much. If he chases down a back pass he receives an ovation from the crowd. Doesn’t feel enough

Trossard, gambled running to the back post and it paid off. Has to start next game

Zinchenko, hmmmn this is hard. Possibly our best player however there is this weird thing where he helps us control possession with his touch and that’s fine if we are dominating games or trying to hang on but if you need affirmative action ie a Scottish nutter running down the wing I’m not sure it helps in some games like this. Undoubtedly a massive contributor to possession but really I don’t see much final ball. It’s all very pretty and looks amazing but is it functional, not sure

Time wasting, the ball must have been in play for mere seconds of the 5 minutes added. Teams are now using the head injury thingy to cheat



Hmmmn can’t see us winning a thing on that form. I wonder if Mikel might spring a surprise and change the set up for Wednesday

2 big hmmmn’s TG. That ain’t good

Since that thrilling win over Utd we seem a bit stale and I think that’s because we haven’t rotated to keep things fresh and sooner or later
Jesus’ absence would take effect
As hard as Eddie tries, Jesus is the next grade up and his sometimes unpredictability can make the difference (particularly when we are struggling against team playing 1:8:2 like Everton and Brentford)
Saliba seems less of the pre WC player he was and Ødegaard is below (his admittedly high) standard

I said earlier in the week I would have played Tomiyasu and Trossard from the start today and I stand by that
Martinelli needs a break and Tomiyasu could have challenged Toney for the high balls leaving Saliba free

All cup finals now. Man C then a quick turnaround for the early game Sat against Villa then just when you don’t need it a resurgent Leicester

Still a long way to go. Keep the faith. Come on you Gunners

Goes without saying we miss Jesus but honestly I think we missed Emile Smith Rowe today. Felt like his type of game

Never going to happen. However you might see Tommy and Trossard come in or a false 9 experiment soon.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... liser.html

Pretty scandalous when your only job is to check offside with the technology at your disposal that you don’t actually check the offside.

Robbed of 2 points today

In every game we’ve dropped points this season you can make a case for at best a big 50/50 decision not going our way and at worst a blatantly awful decision either ruling out a pen/goal for us or like today gifting a goal to the opposition.

No surprise to hear it was the totally incompetent Lee Mason on var today. Forgetting to draw the lines on an offside should be a sackable offence. The guy is clearly not fit to referee and he’s proven he’s not fit to be a var official either.

As frustrated as I am with the result today and recent sequence of results….3 games no wins one goal and one point…alright I know one’s a cup game …but you get the point….pardon the pun ….
Also I hear Rich ….Lee Mason evidently screwed up….however I am reminded of my early education back at Woodberry Down….you gotta be like Caesar’s wife…not only good but seen to be good…
I’m paraphrasing big time but we have to win these games clear…no depending on the vagaries of VAR…I forget who posted but Eddie’s clearance (!) could’ve been a problem
We have to go out and impose our will and win by better players playing better football….and then f… VAR

If I’m honest Brentford could’ve been two up before half time …

I completely understand people saying Brentford played well, and we didnt, and it would be much easier if we just smashed teams 3-0 to take refs out of the equation. Sometimes we do beat teams despite the refs poor call, remember when we beat Villa 2-1 at home and Mings basically wrestled Saka off his feet and threw him to the side in the penalty area!?

But in a title race there are games that you just squeeze and win 1-0 even if you didn’t play well, we did that up at Leeds for example - and remember in that game a poor onfield decision almost cost us 2 points in that game with the late penalty awarded to Leeds thankfully over turned by VAR. That var overturn wasn’t Arsenal getting lucky it was var restoring fairness.

Yesterday Lee Mason would have been asked to effectively check a few things when Brentford scored.
Had there been a handball by the goalscorer? - clearly not
Had there been any fouls? Both of these are subjective decisions so can be debated until the cows come home and PGMOL can also defend most of these actions or inactions.
Finally and most importantly Mason is asked to check if there was any offside - Mason has effectively just gone ‘nah’ without even actually bothering to check. Strike him off for the season.

Wenger once said of Mason (from Bolton) “it’s always the same with you”
At best for him it is incompetence of the highest order, at worst it is unconscious or conscious bias. And I can see many Arsenal fans drift towards the latter considering his history with us. He was also the var that chalked off Martinelli’s goal at OT which the PGMOL have since apologised and said was the wrong decision.

Can’t wait for the day we have some reds from Hertfordshire screw over the two Manchester clubs

It is not even close. What part of watching the sequence for the goal did Mason think wasn’t worth checking? He should never be any form of official again, he makes too many errors.

Lee Mason has taken more points off Arsenal than any prem team in 21 games

Hi Rich,

I am not usually one to blame officials and even yesterday we were pretty lucky that we weren't at least 2 down at halftime but if indeed he forgot to draw a line to check the offside then that level of VAR incompetence from Lee Mason is just inexcusable.

I mean everyone looking at that screen capture would say he looks offside, better draw a line to just make sure, wouldn't they?

It's not even subjective, it's a black and white decision which a line drawn across the screen will give.

If I was Arsenal I would be considering if legal action can be taken due to such gross incompetence, it's that bad.

If VAR can't get a decision like that right then we might as well get rid of it.

I thought Chelsea were denied a stonewall penalty earlier but at least that was a subjective opinion from VAR, even if it was the wrong one.

Just a reminder where all the prem refs are from….

At the moment its beginning to feel like February under latter years Wenger when everything generally fell apart and we'd find ourslves out of all competitions.

Get beat by City on Wednesday and its hard not to feel we've blown our chance.

Exactly, every foul or handball is subjective. You’ll always find at least one person who will see it the other way. Offside is not subjective and there is no reason to accept the guy being asked to draw the lines just didn’t draw the lines.
I just think if I was a var ref I’d realise the scrutiny I’d be under for every goal, and so maybe just have to be super concentrated and double check everything 3 or so times in 90 minutes. Something like a goal mouth scramble just needs extra time checking every time the ball is touched. It really isn’t rocket science.

Saw it said online that Mason forgetting to draw the lines is like a postman forgetting to put the letters through the letterbox!

I would love to see the stats for ‘head injuries’ sustained in each minute of the game and based on which team were winning or losing.

Players will always, always find ways to bend the rules to their advantage, it’s up to the law makers to clamp down on it. Any head injury which requires the physio to come on requires a 3 minute off pitch concussion check by an independent doctor and the team can bring a concussion sub on. And for goodness sake keep track of the time lost. Refs and var have proven themselves incompetent at officiating a game why would we trust them to add on the appropriate amount of added time?

https://twitter.com/southbankmatt/statu ... kJ0_XI2BKA

Didn’t see this one yesterday. Looks like a very harsh second yellow card for ‘dissent’. Lemina seems to have been pretty unfairly singled out and harshly treated.

I’m all for yellow cards for players surrounding the ref and trying to pressure him to change his mind if it is consistent, this wouldn’t even rank in the top 100 of dissent towards officials this season

I’m sure the refs all know the laws of the game better than 99.999% of people out there but they can be far too easily conned by players. Compare this to other sports where officials are bang on top of any kind of gamesmanship and they even have after match reviews and citations for anything that wasn’t spotted in the match - whereas our league decides the ref saw it so it can’t be reviewed.

If you just took the Arsenal and City matches this season I think you’d make a clear argument for Arsenal being at least 6 points better off than we are and City certainly a few worse.

I still can’t get over Lee Mason not even drawing the line. It’s madness. It wasn’t a difficult thing to know it was worth checking, it wasn’t some obscure hard to define deflection, or a lot earlier in phases of play. It was the guy who gave the assist! There are no other bodies in the way, it’s clear who the last defender is (because var seemingly get that wrong sometimes as well).

This is beyond any other decision that has been debated this season because it is not subjective it is fact and was the primary reason var was introduced.

The sooner we use the automated technology that is available for offsides the better. Get these officials away from the games and get back to players deciding games and titles

Maybe I'm too cynical, too defeatist but I have gone from probable winners to probable runner ups. I don't see us making it. I hope I'm thoroughly proven wrong.

I'd start Trossard. At the risk of Martinelli losing his confidence. Clubs have him sussed out. I might even play Jorginho in Xhaka's spot even if he's a Partey substitute. We need more guile in the advanced position Xhaka currently occupies. Not sure that would help.

In both the Everton game and this game there’s a strong case in my eyes to swap the Martinelli Trossard substitutions and start Trossard and put Martinelli on second half. Trossard operates better in that really tight suffocating press where there’s no space and second half when they inevitably tire, Martinelli can exploit any space.

Just before he was subbed vs Everton he had a really good run with the ball, one of the only times in the game he had any joy as far as I can recall, but only coincided with the press finally tiring.

By the way Toney was superb yesterday. Won 12 of 13 aerial duels and found a way to get every 50/50 his way when grappling the CB. Interesting that he pulled on to Saliba who is taller than Gabriel but probably not as aggressive or as good in the air.

Toney would be a great plan B for Arsenal but how can you convince a guy to come and sit on your bench and justify spending probably £60-70m on a guy to just be your plan B.

People have pointed out the isolation Martinelli has now Jesus isn’t in the team.
Also I think against these deep blocks we need more from Xhaka’s left 8 position and more from the full backs in all honesty.

It’s ultra attacking but I can imagine Trossard in Xhaka’s position and Martinelli out wide. And with the full backs it’s almost like you need Ashley Cole types who just push to the by line and have decent end product, which for us is more passes than lofted crosses.

It feels like we need to mix things up a bit but not for the big game v City as they don’t play with a deep defence

You sure he would be a plan b? I’m not. He would be definitely starting ahead of Eddie and maybe even Jesus based on yesterday. He was causing chaos.

If we could just get a point on Wednesday. Would be absolutely huge. Retain a 6 point margin going into a run of easier games.

Yesterday felt familiar though a sense of deja vu. It can come apart so easily.

I know that it’s been done to death but the condemnation of the error is widespread. And it’s the same duffer who made the crucial mistake (later admitted by the PGMOL) at Old Trafford.

This guy is seriously affecting the title race.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 80641.html

PS Perhaps we shouldn’t take it personally. There were several VAR human errors yesterday. Absolutely no excuse for that. A real time error is quite understandable, but an error on review is appalling.

I’m a little surprised at the level of condemnation actually. It’s a ghastly decision.

Also the timewasting being allowed is absurd. Player goes down with a head injury knowing it stops the game, they wait for the player to be treated then the moment he’s up sub another player consuming more time. Conscious effort to ensure the ball isn’t in play

Absolutely. All of that.

Anthony Taylor from Manchester in charge of Wednesdays game with err Manchester.

We know how this ends

PGMOL said earlier in the season there had been 6 incorrect VAR calls earlier in the season. 3 of these 6 were Lee Mason on VAR.

What more does this guy have to do to get struck off?

Well quite if we decided our style of play was long ball. He’s a good footballer no doubt but Jesus is a different level with the style of football we play

https://twitter.com/__thekid4/status/16 ... ATsr0huuLg

Seen a few people refer to this ‘goal’ being ruled out for Brentford. With as much of an unbiased hat on I’d be disappointed if that was given as a foul by an Arsenal striker but these things do happen in games, slight shirt tug and arm on the shoulder, very soft but seen many given. Also the refs whistle blew ages before he actually stuck the ball in the net as both the covering Arsenal defender and Ramsdale gave up trying to actually defend it.

Completely incomparable to the Toney goal

He was able to out-muscle both of our CBs on numerous occasions, particularly from high clearances (the contrast between his strength and how easily Martinelli could be bundled off the ball in similar situations, was rather painful yesterday.) The ball seems to stick to him, he's quick to spot runners, and he's pretty dangerous at the business-end of course.

It would be lovely to have different types for forward players, rather than just the fast, technical winger/striker type we have. Imagine him on the receiving end of some of Tierney's crosses.

Brentford we’re not playing long ball yesterday, when there was a turnover in possession they intelligently played a very quick out ball for Toney to try and break on. We did his a few times but it doesn’t really work effectively with Nketiah who isn’t great in the air.

Only Haaland and Kane have scored more than Toney this season. I really don’t think there’s any question he benches all our current strikers. If the teams swapped strikers yesterday I think we would have comfortably won.