since a PK can has a heavy influence on the scoreline, I hope VAR is implemented ASAP to clean up the diving. Zaha had already left the ground with BOTH feet falling forward before any contact with Xhaha.I also felt that Mustafi was hard done by since I personally felt the contact was incidental and not an impedement, but I understand others interpretation there. In order for VAR to work, what has to be cleaned up is what consititues a "foul" in the penalty area for a PK to be awarded. I'm so tired hearing commentators - especially former players - inaccurately interpret the rule when they say "There is slight contact, so it's definitely a PK for me." That's not the rule. Contact is allowed as long as it is within the rules of the game and or doesn't intentionally impede the attacking player. Shoulder to shoulder contact is legal, yet attackers frequently dive and are awarded penalties for it. A defender plants his feet, and the attacker drags his foot to make contact with the defender is not IMPEDING the attacker. An attacker is running shoulder to shoulder with the defender, and swings a leg into the defender's path to get tripped up is not a foul.
Disappointed a bit, but a point away to palace to cap off a three game week is not too bad really. Zaha is good against good defenders and against xhaka, mustafi and Leicateiner he looks world class. The bottom line is that if we’d spent 100m on defenders this summer we’d probably have 5 more points this season. But we didn’t and we don’t. This depth at defense will be an ongoing problem I think. Hopefully the club will move in January. The real puzzle though is creativity in midfield. After running Leicester, ozil did his famous disappearing act. Iwobi had a poor game and then Ramsey came on and tanked it as well. I like that Emery took off ozil. Although we lost some control the work was there and barring a couple of individual mistakes and over commitance going forward we were on pace to see out the three points.
Agreed. However, I think he should have replaced him with Ramsey or Miki. Ozil for Welbeck makes no sense. Even with Iwobi sliding over to the 10, Welbeck/PAE/Laca as a FW 3 is not a good combo.
I'm not very disappointed. Sure it would've been nice to go a perfect 24pts in Project24, but 22pts is an awesome return. Maybe it was easier for me to not be disappointed, because I didn't watch our game until I came back from Red Bull Arena late last night. Sorry I couldn't oblige your there mate! Apparently someone capitulated in the cold of Canada.
When the substitution was made I expected Iwobi to slide over to the 10, but he didn't, he stayed on the right and Welbeck played through the middle.
But also I do believe that Granit Xhaka asked for trouble when he stuck his leg out for Zaha to run into it and deliberately trip over it to draw the penalty. Yes Wilfred Zaha is a hell of a player, but also, I also believe he is a very smart player, I know that if I stuck my leg out of course I'm asking Zaha to trip over it, it looks too enticing, but he kinda sold it and Martin Atkinson rung up Xhaka with the questionable foul in the box and awarded the PK, in which was converted. I also think the Laws of The Game need to also address the ever-so-common problem of players constantly diving to draw fouls/penalties/cards against an opponent, and I think that while it is well known that there are (currently) 17 Laws there ought to be either an 18th law added in to thwart would-be divers from exploiting the other 17, or, there oughta be some flexibility over how those 17 Laws are interpreted, when they were written back in the 19th century they had no idea that players would try and exploit those now-ancient terms, not having VAR at the time. I figure that if the US Congress can change tax laws (I wasn't in favor of giving rich fat-cats some of Trump's buddies more tax breaks at my expense), then I believe the FA and FIFA can do some modifications on the rulings to crack down on 21st century issues such as dives.
FWIW, I'm skeptical that VAR will be used to clean up PKs anytime soon, or with any objective consistency. Paying fans (both in the stadium and subscribers) expect to see goals, and "winning" PKs scored by marquee players is one nearly sure-fire way to get them.
I saw something that said Ozil got 3x more passes from the other 2 midfielders at Lester vs. Palace. Don't know if it was our players or the defense that contributed to this.
I think Woy has a pretty solid game plan defensively. It’s not that difficult to mark ozil our of the game. Had iwobi and laca Been sharper it would have freed ozil a bit. We often like to just think our players exists in a vacuum, but the opposition has a lot to do with it. Palace are right with us in the goal/XG conceded department. Playing at their ground also gave them more drive than Leicester had on our turf as well.