Arsenal statement ‘a disgrace’ as officials drive fans away from Premier League farce

The Mailbox carries contrasting reactions to Arsenal’s statement, while some fans are losing interest amid the continued refereeing farce. Also: Newcastle, Man Utd, Liverpool and more…

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Diminishing returns
I haven’t written in for nigh on 6 years, but I’m compelled to do so today because I’m starting to lose a bit of interest in the game at the moment, primarily because of the the nonsense around referring in the premier premier league.

Last season I watched Marcus Rashford “escort” the ball near 20 yards before Bruno Fernandes scores at Old Trafford vs Man City without being offside. Even as an Arsenal fan, I was left perplexed and had a feeling in my gut that took my totally by surprise. It was one of disappointment to the point of feeling like I’m waiting my time, despite the incident being a big boost to Arsenal’s title challenge. Had the game I’d been playing for 40 years suddenly changed and we’d all not noticed? This, apparently, new game-breaking rule left me, and everyone else, completely frustrated. But no, our collective gut was correct and the ref and VAR misinterpreted the rules in a way you only could if you’d never played the game.

Fast forward to this season and that same feeling has revisited my gut again and again: Luis Diaz is incorrectly ruled offside, because the team in the VAR booth are too busy eating sandwiches, or something – it’s not even a subjective decision (hold that thought); Andre Onana wiping out two players whilst completely missing the ball; Wolves defenders conceding penalties for breathing on Sheffield United players…How on earth does one get these decisions wrong? How?

Then there’s Newcastle’s goal last night: was the ball out? Who knows. Really, it’s too hard to call. Was it a foul? If it wasn’t I don’t know what is anymore – I’ve committed that foul and seen it on TV so many times. Was it offside? Probably, but the tech let the ref down. But what was was absolutely definitive was the ball bouncing off Joelinton’s arm (see the x link below) before reaching Gordon, thus, objectively, the goal should not stand. How have the so called professionals, with years of training, video technicians, and now, apparently, all the time in the world missed it? Why have I have invested so much money on travel, tickets, TV subscriptions, time, etc on a product that has elements that fail so glaringly, so often?

At the moment, the premier league have a product of diminishing value, and it’s completely within their gift to sort it out. If I was chief exec I’d be having some serious thought about how they influence a greater rate of improvement in standards at the PGMOL.
Elo (Zürich)

JOHN NICHOLSON: Mikel Arteta was vociferous, righteous and right; VAR is anti-football and anti-humanity

Losing faith
Quite sad to read Saturday’s 16 conclusions from Mr Dave Tickner. You’re still clearly missing the point. Your interpretation of how VAR works is completely flawed. I’m quoting this next part directly from the Premier League’s website

“ VAR can be used to overturn a subjective decision if a “clear and obvious error” has been identified.
The referee will explain their decision to the VAR, and what they have seen.
If the evidence provided by the broadcast footage does not accord with what the referee believes they have seen, then the VAR can recommend an overturn.”

The last sentence is very clear. “If the evidence provided by the broadcast footage does not accord with what the referee believes they have seen….”

The referee and linesman clearly thought the ball was in play. However, all possible broadcast footage showed it was not. The goal should not have stood unless there was clear evidence it should have. Not the other way round. Because the “broadcast footage” provided showed it was out of play. This is so simple and easy to understand, yet the implementation is so flawed.

Now for the purpose of argument, let’s say I’m wrong and you are right, what then happens to consistency? The Manchester United goal against Brighton where the ball was judged to be out of play from Rashford despite evidence to contrary proves how flawed this league is. What bamboozles me is how everyone chucks it off as human errors. This same people will lie to you that this is the best league in the world. I live in Germany and watch my home club Werder Bremen consistently. I struggle to remember any referring controversies in the last 3 years. I can name at least 10 against Arsenal in the last 2 years alone.

Wolves have probably lost 9 or so points to poor officiating this season. How many points did Brighton lose last season? How many points have Liverpool lost this season? You think this is about bias and supporting “your club”. It’s not. It’s about protecting the integrity of the league. People are losing faith in the process. Losing faith in the officials. We see this everyday in politics. When you lose faith in elected officials, even when they do the right things, it’s hard to recognise it. We are at that point with the officiating in this league.
Damola AFC Bremen

…It’s a pity that everything else that happened in the Newcastle game will overshadow just how much Bruno Guimaraes is able to get away with. Just take his forearm to Jorginho’s head in isolation, ignore everything else that happened in and after the match. How, just how can that be looked at by VAR and not deemed a red card? What mitigating circumstances were there to excuse an arm thrust forward into the head of a player? Is a forearm to the head legal while an elbow or a fist a sending off? Why does Guimaraes get so much benefit of the doubt? Can anyone defend him without obvious tribal loyalties? We know all about the dangers of concussion so why isn’t a player running up to another and throwing an arm at his head not only a simple straight red but also a lengthy ban? Why is there so much effort put into excusing careless (at best…), dangerous behaviour?

The PGMOL is in real trouble and I think it’s going to come to a head this season. It has to or the league will become irrelevant. How can officials get paid by the PIF to officiate games in Saudi and then take control of a game involving clubs owned by the same people? I’m not crying corruption or bribery but I am saying there’s a serious conflict of interest that delegitimizes the whole organisation. Unconscious bias seems as good an explanation as any to how a player can thrust an arm into a players head and get away with it because I can’t think of any other.

Arteta’s rant will do more harm than good for Arsenal. There’ll be no apology for not sending Guimaraes off but there will be lots more debatable decisions going against Arsenal in the coming months. The PGMOL’s motivations aren’t for the good of the game, they’re for the good of the PGMOL and that’s enough to get rid of them. Officiating is totally broken, game deciding decisions seem completely arbitrary where the reasons why one decision is correct are the same reasons why the opposite was true the week before. Where criticism of not giving a player two yellow cards a few weeks ago leads to that same player being allowed to play like a lunatic later. No lessons learned, no adjustment in behaviour. Roll the dice and see what a jetlagged VAR feels like giving based on anything but the actual rules.

I don’t write this as a myopic Arsenal fan, I’d argue that Havertz should have seen red too. We need to get past tribal loyalties because these decisions are affecting every team every week and we need to greet each of them as if they had happened to our own team.
SC, Belfast (rapidly becoming much less invested in the Premier League)

…Big fan of the job Eddie Howe has done at Newcastle and kudos to the players.

You know they are becoming part of the main players when one of their key midfielder somehow escapes a red card for a couple of bookable offences. Bruno is a great player but boy was he lucky (and has been a few times). Not as lucky as Rodri, Fabinho and Fernandinho have been over the years but he’s got potential!

I’m not a Toon or Arsenal fan but I’m guessing that both managers would settle on both their teams escaping red cards.

Ps another show of weak refereeing. I know the players don’t help but officials really need to toughen up.
Tom.

Arsenal’s statement
I’m sorry but all jokes and “bantz” aside that statement by Arsenal is an absolute disgrace and really dangerous precedent of a slippery slope of press statements every week when a decision doesn’t go your way.

While Liverpool bang on the game with Spurs we can all unequivocally concede that an error was made. No problem, improvement in the communication and a review was needed. we can all agree.

The presumption by Arsenal that an objective factual error went against them yesterday is categorically false!
it was three 50/50s that happen every game. for them to cry foul and release a statement about the injustice is frankly disgraceful and I hope the PL slap them down hard for this.

Their own subjective emotion is getting the better of them and it’s an attempt to make it more difficult for decisions to go against Arsenal in the future.

I get annoyed when decisions go against Spurs, but I also accept it’s a bloody tough job and it’s arguably the only sport when the players are actively looking to make it even harder for the ref. diving, etc

When a ball goes out for a throw/corner it’s instinct for both sides to call it as their ball even though one side KNOWS the ball went out off them.

Awful stuff, no honour in the game.

This statement is a disgrace and sets a really bad tone going forward.
Jeremy Spurs. Dublin.

…Picking up on the fallout from the Arsenal statement. I see Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen almost (suspiciously) simultaneously came out and strongly criticised it.

Of course Carragher took the same stance on the recent error that went against Liverpool and the subsequent statement, no? And Neville says Arteta has ‘undermined the entire refereeing community’ community?! Good god Gary, that is some pearl clutching there. Maybe if Gary was so worried about the refs community he shouldn’t have called the referee for the england v France World Cup game a joke and a disgrace. And Michael Owen, the ex-Newcastle man selected to be the Paxman style interviewer to hold Howard Webb to task when he comes on his show to explain decisions wouldn’t have a dog in this fight would he?

In Neville and Carragher’s case they are the most high profile and influential pundits in the game, both carry huge rivalry with Arsenal in their plying days, Neville in particular admired there was genuine hatred between the two clubs and has now effectively become nothing more than a common troll on social media. The reason these two rose to the top was despite what everyone thought they’d be they were refreshingly unbiased to start with. Now it feels they are pundits with an agenda they will weave in to suit their argument.

People seem to have focussed on Arsenal’s statement with regards to the goal but the Bruno non red was the far worse decision. Decisions on ball in play, fouls with two players competing, handball and offside when you can’t have an angle to see when the ball was touched carry so many layers of subjectivity that it’s impossible to have people 100% agree with you.

But off the ball incidents are usually more black and white. Var audio talked about a forearm not an elbow and that Bruno didn’t ‘use his arm as a weapon’ what on earth does that mean? Where in the laws of the game is any of that mentioned. It’s clear violent conduct with zero attempt to play the ball or even make a challenge of any sort. I think refs have a problem with the advantage rule, they seem to love playing one but the original foul they’re playing advantage for is then somehow wiped from their memory, no coming back for punishment and it doesn’t register in any totting up process, it’s a licence to leave something in on a player when it’s clear that player has just made a safe pass to a teammate under no pressure.

It also allows fans to say ‘how can he be a dirty player he only made 2 fouls all game!!’ i think it was clear that the officials didn’t want to fan the flames of an already very hostile home crowd after the Havertz foul and giving 3 yellows for dissent A team who is also consistently getting the 5:30 Saturday kick offs which just so happen to be prime time in Saudi. It’s a long stretch to a conspiracy but if prem refs were being flown first class, 5 star hotels, handsomely paid to guest referee MLS games for Stan Kronke’s Colorado Rapids team and then came back and gave a number of highly questionable decisions to Arsenal in the next game there would be some very Ancelotti style eye brow raises! There is no conspiracy but unconscious bias must be rife in the league, it would be almost impossible for a ref not to let their own view or the noise around football or a certain player cloud their decision making, they wouldn’t be human if it didn’t.

In Arsenal’s games this season we’ve had what happened at St James Park Kovacic’s non red which everyone has agreed was a clear red. Sanchez wiping out Jesus for a penalty not given, the two softest yellows for a red for Tomiyasu v Palace and Havertz penalty over turned v Man U – the only penalty given for a foul that has been overturned by var all season, so much for the high threshold eh? Seeing the two penalties which have gone against Wolves recently and not been overturned you wonder why the Havertz one was.

Just before Liverpool fans come on creating a war against Arteta because he didn’t support them when they complained (most people have seen the quotes) he actually said he hoped Liverpool got what they deserved, so very much agreed they’d been done over. PGMOL would be very happy if the focus of fans of two screwed over clubs was point scoring against each other over who was treated worse and who didn’t support who when they got screwed.

Finally, I think the var process is fundamentally wrong. Var is told not to re referee the game (but do when it suits), and so there needs to be clear and obvious error to overturn an onfield decision – ok all good so far – but the problem I think is refs are shying away from making an onfield decision because they know var is there to seemingly correct any mistake.

So it’s much easier to just let the game go on and see what happens knowing there is a var safety net. But then var takes this non-decision as the firm onfield decision that they have a high bar to overrule. So you can have a situation where the onfield ref thinks there is a foul but not certain enough to give it, then var also thinks it’s a foul but not certain enough to over rule it. So both officials would think it’s a foul but both are deferring to each other and no foul is given.

So Arteta and Arsenal are absolutely right to call out refereeing standards, the levels are getting worse not better.
Rich, AFC

Newcastle hit the big time
Just wanted to write in to express my joy on Newcastle finally being embraced as a big club with our arrival in a 16 conclusions article.

I feel empathy for the Arsenal fans on what was a tough to take loss, aside from finishing I thought they played very well (first half pressing in particular was excellent), but a special mention must go to MAW the LA Gooner who constructed a very lengthy argument (including a David Luis reference of all things) but somehow still concluded it was Bruno G not Joelinton pushing in the box for the goal.
Derek from Dundalk

Arteta in for a dose of Klopp’s treatment
I believe in fairness of the game and improving refereeing as Ive mentioned a few times yet when I do it’s dismissed as Liverpool van whingeing and that everything evens out and we need to shut up and move on.
So imagine my surprise when I’m repeatedly seeing each week different fans all complaining about refereeing. How curious.

For the record the onfield refs said it was in play and VAR checked it and couldn’t find a clear and obvious error. As for the ‘foul’ the only time anyone can see that is the still image, go one frame either side of it and you can’t see it..change angle and you can’t see it – so again not a clear and obvious error, which is what VAR is for.

I’d argue Bruno was a red card but I think the ref set a tone by not sending off havertz as well and gave Bruno the same treatment as havertz. Argue if you like but when havertz dove in both feet had left the floor which is a red card offense when taking the man. Bruno and havertz should have been sent off but the ref allowed leniency for both players. I wonder if arteta thought that made him feel sick and was disgraceful?

Finally it was truly impressive to finally see a manager take klopps crown for most excessive whinger. That post game interview was so over the top anyone would think arteta Newcastle picked up the ball and ran around like it was rugby while the refs waved play on.

I can tell you one thing, he won’t be getting any favourable treatment again this year. What I’ve learned from klopp complaining is refs don’t like it and tend to skew decisions against him whenever he does it. Also I don’t recall arteta complaining much last year when VAR handed arsenal points Vs Liverpool strangely he didn’t feel sick that time despite two of those decisions being incorrect and both leading to goals.
Lee

United’s punishment
Hi F365 – is there any way of checking for how much longer VAR are going to punish Man United for that decision in their favour in the Wolves game?

Pretty much every 50/50 decision – and even 60/40 – since has gone against United, it’s getting ridiculous. I’d bet money right now that we won’t see 1 more ‘subjective’ offside this season, nor will we see any more penalties for pulling and dragging in the penalty box that was penalised last week but was seemingly all fine in the Newcastle Arsenal game last night.
Kevin, Dublin

Succession x Dream Team
Good Lord there has been some volume of ludicrous hot takes on Utd in the last few weeks. We’ve had someone who thinks ETH should resign out of respect, someone who thinks the fans are somehow to blame (as if they somehow decided to spend 80m on Antony), a chap today who claims no one understands Sancho’s treatment (despite it being clearly stated by the manager) even someone who thinks it’s a miracle United are competing with Brighton (who spent how much in the last decade?)

United make for an absolutely fascinating MBA case study. Extraordinary, prolonged success followed by astonishing root and branch failure in every facet of the organisation and yet, crucially, maintaining incredible commercial returns. That normally only applies to vital public infrastructure privatised by government!

ETH is looking more and more like David Moyes. Appointed for the long term but collapsing under the sheer weight of expectation and pressure – not to mention the level of dysfunction internally. Is he the problem? Of course not. How could he be when Utd have been through 6 managers in 10 years with the same results.

Is ETH blameless? Of course not – his signings have been questionable (in Antony’s case downright appalling) and this year his tactics look confused. After 18 months the team should be playing with some sort of coherent style and they aren’t. On the other hand it’s a toxic environment with a toxic dressing room so what else should we expect?

The same issues persist that have existed for 15 years now. An inability to identify good talent early, acquire it, nurture it and improve it. A staggeringly poor track record of offloading surplus players for value. Questionable attitudes from the playing personnel in terms of discipline, character and professionalism (Sancho, Antony, Maguire, Greenwood, Pogba, Ronaldo, Martial). A refusal to modernise operations – how often have we seen reports leaked that a new ‘Director of Football’ is to be put in place only for it not to materialise? The list goes on and on and on.

The club has no clear direction or strategy, no overarching culture or ethos other than to make money (at which it is breathtakingly good given the poor product they offer). They have a poor coaching structure, poor scouting, poor deal making and a delapidated stadium. The problems go way beyond Ten Hag (honestly who would replace him at this stage of the season that would be better and would actually take the job?)

Without significant reform to the corporate structure the situation is unlikely to change. The remedy isn’t De Zerbi, Zidane, Ange or any other manager. Going all out to buy Harry Kane or Jude Bellingham wouldn’t have made a huge difference either.

United are a dumpster fire and the only blamless ones are the Utd fans. But without quality football and certainly no trophies to anticipate they should (like the fans of most other clubs) just try and enjoy the wins when they come. In between – its a compelling real life corporate drama. It’s like Succession meets Dream Team. Now who wouldn’t want to watch that?

Your Old Pal
Stevo, Dublin

…That was quite rich, Rich. Most underperforming manager? Again, there are more than just MUFC and AFC in the league. Have you heard of Chelsea, or seen how they are doing? Poch only got about 400M to spend, have no European football and they are 6 points behind Ten Haags United? Are Kompany and Heckingbottom doing well in your eyes?

Maybe it is Ten Haags style of play? Currently watching LFC ping cross after cross into the box and getting a late equalizer vs Luton, maybe he should take some notes of this modern football approach? Arsenal, for all of their glory, are just six points ahead? If they draw their next two, and United win their next two, what does that make Arteta?

Most unsuitable captain? Fernandes? Really? The guy has scored and assisted far more than any of his teammates since his arrival(122 goals and assists in 200 apps). He is the team’s best player, and quite frankly, there really aren’t many, if not any better choices. You got “error prone” Maguire, “most drop off” Casemiro, “Purple patch” Rashford and no other serious contenders. It’s not ideal mind, but it is what it is. The point here was that nobody typically has a “Least deserving to be captain”, unless you were an Arsenal fan during Xhakas reign..

United fans can certainly say ‘stop picking on us’ too. There is a term known as “Displaced Aggression”. It’s most commonly associated with animals, but can be applied to humans. It is when people are fearful or agitated by an external stimuli, and can’t/won’t react to it, so they place their aggression elsewhere. It is a very toxic act, but one noticed across the animal kingdom (think of the 1960’s abusive drunk father who hates his boss and job, and takes it out on his wife and children). I notice this coming out of the non-Utd core of football fans.

People use Man Utd, their players and now, their fans, as scapegoats for their misplaced anger. Don’t believe me? Look at the vitriol Maguire faced for not playing, and the abuse he was on the end of for *England not performing well*. It was a sad, shameful and ultimately disgusting show of force from the media and angry fans. It was like the Beckham reaction all without a WC. Another member on the end of toxic abuse was Rashford. For what? For the crime of *helping get millions of British kids get food during a pandemic*.

United are a club in chaos, and United fans know this more than most. They accept things are unlikely to get much better anytime soon, especially given the Glazer situation. A situation completely out of their control. The last decade has been a humbling experience, and not one year has passed with United fans seriously considering them as league winners come May. What’s not humble might be a team’s set of fans celebrating their title “win” in January last season. Fans who decide to write in to criticize United for being the “Worst at everything club” that sits a massive six points behind the well run Gunners.
Calvino (I hear playing football can be quite therapeutic)

Sanch-no
Rob in Worthing proclaims that “Nobody really understands why Sancho has been treated as he has, and you could probably include van de Beek in this too”. Ignoring the fact that I have been available to play for United more times than VDB, how about Sancho getting “treated” to £350k a week yet most times he has played he looks like he has only just taken up football as a hobby?

Or how about the time he was given a season-long fully-paid sabbatical by “billy big bollocks” to help him recover from a bout of bad form, then came back and repaid the manager by phoning it in during training? And when TH tried to nudge him into a reaction, after seeing the mollycoddling approach blow up in his face, the poor lad’s first thought was to go onto social media and slag off the manager. Also, when TH (rightfully) expected an apology and some common decency, it was not forthcoming?

Maybe there is a case of imposter syndrome there, but I’d wager it’s coming from the guy who is happy to sit playing virtually, and pick up a king’s ransom, while his actual team toils. It’s definitely not the guy who is working his ass off to try to fix the issues, some of which are down to the aforementioned player who has been given more time and patience than he probably deserves. And if Rashford’s poor form has anything to do with that situation, which I highly doubt, then I really do despair.
Garey Vance, MUFC

Brighton robbed and rubbish Reds
First, Brighton should feel hard done by with the disallowed goal against us. We’re talking an inch at best?? “Clear and obvious??” No. This is the problem with VAR. It isn’t designed for this. It was never meant to be implemented like this. This is on the Premier League and their bringing the game into disrepute by using such a mechanism which is nothing but faulty. As an Evertonian, we’ve had enough of these “unclear and not obvious” calls turned against us by VAR that I can actually commiserate with Brighton here. Dunk’s volley was ferocious only to be ruled out. Drawing lines on the screen? If you’re having to do that, then it wasn’t a clear and obvious error. I’ll say it again. Bin VAR. Just BIN it.

I don’t usually write in about Liverpool but I got home only to see the score line at the end. I’m eagerly awaiting Klopp’s excuse for this one. As for the result? You can’t consider yourself title contenders with results like that.
TX Bill (slowly working our way up the table) EFC

Nunez madness incoming
A few thoughts from the Liverpool game:
– fair play to Luton, they were bloody good.
– bad result, but can’t be too disappointed when you get an injury time equaliser.
– particularly when the equaliser is from Diaz.
– to balance his fluctuation between the sublime and ridiculous, Nunez will obviously score an overhead kick from the halfway line against Toulouse.
Aidan, Lfc (still love The Chaos)

The left-footed Carlos Alberto
*I don’t think anybody had Burnley versus Crystal Palace down as a potential classic, and they were proved correct. Vincent Kompany’s side are struggling to make the step up to the Premier League, but would have believed a Palace side missing several important players were someone they could beat.

*The good news for Roy Hodgson was that Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise trained all week, with Eze deemed fit enough to make the bench. In his absence, Will Hughes started as a de facto number ten, although whether this is because his manager believed he could be an enganche in the Lionel Messi style, or simply that he was going to be the most advanced of the three defensive midfielders, remains a mystery.

*Out of every footballer in the world, Jordan Ayew wavers the most frequently between “how the hell is he a Premier League player” and “how the hell hasn’t he won the Ballon d’Or”. It’s obvious why he hasn’t won the Ballon d’Or yet – one of his main assets is his industry, whereas the top prizes tend to go to luxury players. The Ghanaian was described by Hodgson this week as one of the best signings the club has ever made; including his initial loan period, he has played 186 games for Palace and scored 20 goes, which is certainly not bad for a player who only cost £2.5m.

*Ayew’s persistence created the first goal after a quarter of the match, when he dispossessed Jordan Beyer on the right wing. He dribbled into the six-yard box in a way that forced James Trafford to engage with him, then fired the ball across goal where Jeffrey Schlupp slid in to poke home. Despite playing together on a regular basis (admittedly with Schlupp in a more defensive capacity) for five years, this was only the third time they had combined as scorer and assister on a Palace goal.

*To give Kompany’s side their due, going behind woke them up and they responded well, dominating the play and creating several chances. Luca Koleosho isn’t a player I’m particularly familiar with but he was a real threat on the Burnley left, as he made a few opportunities for himself and his teammates. Late on, Sam Johnstone had to be at his best to deny Jay Rodriguez with a header from a corner as the Palace defence wobbled but just about held firm. Johnstone had a big interview in the Guardian on Saturday, so I was fully expecting him to underwhelm with the heightened attention on him – it is the Palace way, after all.

*A great moment for Palace fans came on 58 minutes when Eze entered the game in place of Cheick Doucoure, meaning trequartista Hughes reverted to a more familiar role in front of the defence. It took a while for Eze to get into the game, probably because of the amount of defending the Eagles were having to do, but when the moment came, it was worth the wait. In stoppage time, Ayew pressed Charlie Taylor, near the left-back corner flag, into making a poor clearance. Naouirou Ahamada intercepted the ball and passed it to Eze, just right of the D. In the same way that in cricket, the best batters somehow seem to have more time to choose their shot, he had an age to pick his pass. He laid it off to his left and Tyrick Mitchell, of all people, came steaming forward a full 50 yards to slot the ball home, like a left-footed Carlos Alberto and put a bit of gloss on the victory.

*There has been an interesting shift in the dynamics of how teams attack against the Eagles this season. Previously, it’s seemed like teams have preferred to target Mitchell, at left-back, because of his inexperience, over Joel Ward on the right. Now, things appear to have flipped round – Mitchell is established as a Premier League defender with two England caps, while Ward’s experience now suggests he may be past his physical prime. I don’t think he is, but I also don’t think Ward has been playing as well this season as he has in previous years.

*Surely they have to do something about VAR, now Liverpool AND Arsenal have had their matches adversely affected by it. It’ll be Manchester City next and if that happens, where will it end? At the very least, something needs to be done to stop Arsenal fans on Twitter indulging in their favourite hobby, the false equivalence, every time anything happens in any other game – “I see the officials have made this decision but a completely unrelated call went against Arsenal in a different game”.

*Mikel Arteta was the latest example of how several birds could be killed with a single stone. His post-match comments about “working so many hours” to be ready for the game only to have it ruined by the officials would, in a just world, have been countered by an interviewer asking if he genuinely believed a solitary shot on target and a total xG of 0.54 constituted a match-winning performance irrespective of any refereeing decisions. This would either lead to a hissy fit or a moment of self-awareness, either of which would be great television and could possibly lead to the end of contractually obliged post-match manager comments that are rarely ever particularly interesting.

*Those of us with long memories will recall the mid-late era Arsene Wenger sides that had a reputation, rightly or wrongly, that they were a bit soft, that they couldn’t cope when opponents got a bit rough with them. What didn’t help the situation was that Wenger himself would constantly complain about the treatment, so they got more of it from certain managers, all the while not winning many trophies. Someone who was an important player in that team is now the manager, and the long and short of what happened on Saturday was that Arsenal couldn’t cope with the physicality that Newcastle brought and were clearly rattled by it.

In all likelihood, Kai Havertz and Bruno Guimaraes were probably both lucky to see out the full match, but that isn’t the point. Once the Havertz foul on Sean Longstaff was deemed only a yellow card offence, the tone was set. United adapted to the new parameters far better than the Gunners. The game became a physical battle, just as the goal that settled it was – it was the result of United’s physical dominance following a mental mistake from Arsenal. If Arteta’s side had been of the mindset to get stuck in, they probably wouldn’t have conceded that goal.
Ed Quoththeraven

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