The team that parks the bus usually loses by a lot. That game was on my tenth anniversary so I only half paid attention to it. And, oddly enough, the game was also the tenth anniversary of another Arsenal 3-1 win against Chelsea.
In the Southampton match we weren't outplayed. They fluked a goal and we couldn't finish. But we weren't outplayed. Palace and BHA matches, I agree with you.
That's really my point about the Catch-22: we can't sign the most elite strikers without qualifying for the Champions League, and we can't qualify for the Champions League without an elite striker. Which makes our current situation rather, shall we say, sub-optimal. But we're still just three points back of the Spurs with a game in hand. And having just endured a season where NYCFC went a full 508 consecutive minutes without scoring a goal, dropped 14 points over five games, fell all the way down from third to eighth in less than three weeks, then stormed back down the stretch and ended up winning the MLS Cup, I can't help but believe anything is possible. Anyway, going after Vlahović wasn't particularly unrealistic. He fit our age profile and we fit his, and the money was there. But it certainly became a waste of time after his camp made it clear they weren't interested. We may have been better served looking to Isak or someone else. Why we didn't probably has something to do with gambling on making it anyway and then being in a position to really spend.
The problem is he has 4 goals in 25 appearances. That is not fine for a striker however you look at it.
What bugs me is that we didn't have a good Plan B to execute... buy or loan. Or maybe we did and that failed too? But it's now clear that our inability to bring someone in January has come back to haunt us.
I'm still quite sure Martinelli was actually offside, but ********, that was one of the worst uses of VAR I've ever seen.
Have you heard anyone actually argue that Martinelli was onside? All I hear are arguments that it shouldn’t have been called because VAR took too long.
You are right about the Southampton game, although I don’t think their goal was a fluke. Maybe the ball that was played back into our box was blind, but everything after that (the assist and goal) was very intentional.
I can't tell from any camera angle whether he's on-side or off. The on field call was onside, and it should have stood because the evidence was inconclusive.
Yes, it was. The offside rule requires two people to be level. At least one person was. But there was such a thicket of legs that the camera shots available couldn't possibly tell if a second person was there or not - the fourth official just guessed.
It's definitely been a problem, although I honestly think losing Tierney and Thomas Partey are a bigger deal, and we've been missing Tomiyasu all along. We're not the same team we were with them. Blistering performance from Eddie Nketiah today, though. He must have heard all the "not good enough" talk and gotten pissed off. Good on you, kid. Rumble, young man, rumble.
no, i have not. i could not see but both andrew mangan and james mcnicholas agreed that there is strong likelihood that he was probably offside. on the other hand, the argument is not simply that "VAR took too long" but that "VAR had no conclusive evidence". there has been a constant stream of "no conclusive evidence" as the excuse/reason why various obviously bad calls on the pitch were not overturned and, if that is truly the case, then it is correct reasoning. all sports that utilise replay apply the same "no conclusive evidence, no overturn" logic. this play magically had no conclusive evidence and, once the glove did not fit, then they should have acquitted. instead they chose to guess an imaginary line and deemed it good enough to overturn.
That's the part I do not believe is true. From the video that I saw during the game, it was conclusive. I think people were focused on the players' bodies, but Martinelli's foot was pretty clearly passed everyone's foot - possibly even the goalie's. I was surprised that the decision took so long, but I don't think they guessed at it. They overturned it based on the evidence they had. But none of this matters. We were outplayed, which was my initial point. I don't think we lost based on this decision.
a goal might have changed the energy and change the game but i agree with you 100%. the loss was on how we lined up and played, not on this single decision.
Ramsdale punches the ball and White in the head. White goes down. Ref probably should have stopped play (like they did for Azpilicueta today ). White being down/groggy holds everyone on. Then the So'ton player hoofs it back over his head into the mixer, one pass, goal. All that sums up to a bit fluky for me.
Ultimately, people wanted VAR, so that it could get big decisions right. I don’t complain much in general, but I especially don’t complain when the right call ultimately is made.
Gabriel kept everyone onside (possibly Tavares too). I didn’t even think about White being injured. He got up pretty quickly, but I guess there is a case that the ref could have stopped the game.
I guess it depends what you mean by quickly. He doesn't even come back into the frame until the ball gets hooked back in. I was in the grounds, and he was slow to get up. That's why in the clip you've copied, Ramsdale and Gabriel are raising their arms. https://arsenalist.com/f/southampton-goal-1-0-2022-04-16.html Anyway, my point overall was that I agree with mebe that this match was one of those instances when it could've easily been 1-nil us. It's not an excuse for our inability to create even more chances. Just an observation.
In real time, White only was down for a few seconds. The punch/clearance, the ball back into the box, White getting back up and the goal all happened within a five or six seconds of each other. The ref certainly could have stopped play, but I am not sure that enough time had passed for me to think that letting the play continue was an egregious or reckless mistake.
Yes. A classic case of random variation - the problem with Arsenal is the margins are too fine. 49 goals for / 39 against / +10 is horrific for a team chasing top 4. What's keeping Arse in contention is that Utd and Spurs have also been car crash this season. Utd have conceded 48 goals which is beyond banter