Wolves - on the bus. Monstrous victory right in the ref’s face
This result was the best the team has achieved this year. It was done despite all the odds and external corrupted sources trying to put a stick in the wheels of Arsenal cart. The horrific corrupted decision to send Miles off was one of the moments that could be a decisive point in the season, breaking the team’s spirit.
I was seriously at peace with accepting that we will fight only for the Champions League trophy this year. When last week, the VAR cancelled the Havertz goal inside 30 seconds I was furious, because I couldn’t see the replay confirming that so fast. This time though.. It was so obvious and cynical that it didn’t trigger any fury - if the officials are so determined to keep us out of the title race, why should we - fans, as well as players and coaching staff bother investing our hearts and souls into it? There was no such shocking decision in the Champions League season. Maybe after facing Real Madrid we'll have a clearer picture. 😀
Stupid corrupted incompetent irresponsible referees
The picture of Oliver’s obvious bias against Arsenal is summarized in a picture floating around.
I was aware of it right after he sent off Trossard on the Etihad and we were at 7 red cards. Since then City and Liverpool continue staying at 0 and 1 red cards respectively and we got one more.
The difference is so obvious, so there's no need to talk about anything except corruption here.
And Oliver together with his VAR partner in crime are not only incompetent, but also stupid. In the Wolves challenge in the second half, which in any case should have ended up in the player being sent off - instead of giving a straight red, he gave a second yellow and, of course, VAR confirmed it. The smart decision was to give a straight red, in this case PGMOL would have the explanation of a “very low bar” adopted by the referee for aggressive challenges for both teams. But instead his hatred towards Arsenal resulted in adding another angle on his bias and incompetence by giving a yellow for a much harsher challenge.
In general PGMOL have thought a lot about how to adopt VAR and avoid having responsibility put at any individual referee and invented “a clear and obvious error” bullshit. Basically this approach gives them multiple benefits:
Referees can still influence the game by taking radical decisions in debatable moments - red cards, penalties, handballs etc.
The field referee can get away from taking responsibility for the decision by saying “I couldn’t see in the moment” and there is VAR to overturn it.
The VAR person can get away by saying it was not “a clear and obvious error” by the field referee.
Bottom line - no single referee takes the sole responsibility for bad decisions, hence, their whole organisation doesn’t have to take disciplinary actions.
So what can Arsenal do in this situation? The sad thing is that I don’t think they can do much. Since such referee decisions are going clearly against Arsenal (and never against Man City of course) there’s not much incentive from the other clubs to demand some changes. If the referee would behave like this in all City matches - maybe? But if they just have the mission to bury 1-2 clubs, there’d never be 14 clubs eager to actually change the organisation. I don’t know if Arsenal can actually go to civil court to check for corruption at work by collecting a large amount of data on Oliver where he takes different decisions in very similar cases. At least this time, the social trend has changed and usually loyal MOTD has gone at full strength at the referee.
Proud of our TEAM
I honestly don’t know what words a manager can find in a dressing room after such a decision. I don’t know how to motivate the team to have another go at the opponent if the referee is out there to hurt your team at any cost.
Somehow, Arteta and the players have found the words to continue fighting with 10 men. They tried to create chances, they tried to stop Wolverhampton, they tried to stay in the game in case the chance comes. And it came from a stupid foul by the only player on a yellow card - that has really cornered Mr Bribe.
After that, Arsenal had their second go at the three points. The problem that we have in the squad is that we don’t really have anyone in the squad to bring on in this exact situation. So we really really really need to sign an attacking player in this last week of the transfer window. Otherwise, we might just lose points because of a missing body. Havertz, who really plays without breaks, was fully exhausted after the final whistle.
Luckily we had a full tank of Italian charisma ready to come in from the bench. Ricky is not often available, but, man, he’s good when you need to pull the goal and match by the hair. Two goals he scored already mostly justify his price tag. We need another decisive goal contribution in the Champions League play-off to call his transfer a success.
I couldn’t be prouder of the team, Arteta and every player for yesterday's result.
Half-assed analysis of the first half
The game after the red card really makes any proper analysis pointless. It was all about battling against the odds and trying to bend the circumstances in your favour.
A couple of interesting things came out of our first half. Ethan Nwaneri replaced Odegaard on the pitch. The captain apparently could barely reach the training ground and was sent home with the next delivery truck. However, Nwaneri didn’t replace Odegaard like-for-like. He played most of the first half as a second striker, spending the time in the box. Naturally he wasn’t too good in this role and I don’t think it plays to his strengths. He is at his best when he tries to dribble his way into the box or make those sudden moves that defenders can’t keep up with. He could also deliver a great pass or shot from right outside the box. I don't think he decided to spend the time in the box by himself, most probably it was Arteta’s instruction. Not sure why, but I reckon they’ll try to fit him into the #9 role for the rest of the season if nobody else is signed.
Kai Havertz got into several very good positions, but in our horror week of the season couldn’t convert them into goals. With him now playing each and every game two times a week it’s really hard to blame him. That said, we need a better conversion rate upfront and I don’t see another option rather than signing a striker right now.
Cunha stays?
Things have taken a turn in the Cunha transfer saga. He missed a crucial chance by centimeters that left Arsenal in contention for the win. I guess once a gooner.. In general his performance was not impressive, but what was more decisive is the apparent hamstring injury for their other striker Strand Larsen.
On one hand it seems like it takes all discussion about Cunha off the table. Wolves can't afford to lose two strikers in a week, so they might pull the plug on any Cunha talks. On the other hand, if they think they need to go in the market for a new striker in summer anyway, it might be good to sell a non-motivated player for a load of money and find an expensive long-term replacement already in January, if that’s possible. Don't be surprised if they snag that towering Porto fella.
CL group phase comes to the end
I actually loved this CL format from the beginning. It was clear from the beginning that it should reduce the number of “formality” matches, since most of the teams still have something to compete for. I remember some people were pissed off in the beginning, because we couldn’t have a reverse game after a bad result away from home. The reverse fixture in the group stage doesn’t really carry much weight, except some personal revenge. On the contrary it lets you test against a bigger range of opponents and styles (8 instead of 3) to understand where you stand generally in European football. And our position is not too bad.
In general, since we are 99.99% into the TOP-8, I would be all in for the full rotation of players. However, there is one tricky aspect. The UEFA website lets you play around with the predictions of where the team will end up. And if I put all the favorites to win (PSG, Man City, Real, Inter, Atleti, Bayern, Milan) and Arsenal drawing with Girona, then the picture I get is the following:
Realistically, in this case we will face either Manchester City or Real Madrid in the first round. And I don’t want to phase those right away in March, especially without Saka. If we win, however, then our draw could look very different (swap Atleti and Arsenal in the picture). Of course, this is all speculation, as a single midtable result could change the draws, but it's worth keeping an eye on.
That said, I believe a rotated squad, similar to the one we had against Dinamo, should be able to secure even the away win. I would get Timber, Calafiori, Kiwior, Zinchenko in defence if they are still in the team by Tuesday. I guess we don’t need to risk Odegaard if he was sick on Saturday. So the midfield of Jorginho, Rice(Merino), Nwaneri seems a reasonable choice.
The attack set up is where the question mark is the biggest. Sterling should start, but except him.. Havertz is fully exhausted, Trossard played a full 90 minutes, which he rarely does. I would expect probably a Trossard, Martinelli, Sterling attack, but I am seriously open to seeing Tierney on the left side. He can theoretically stay very wide and deliver brilliant crosses in the box.
Let me know your line-up in the comments. COYG!