Match Reaction v Wolves (away)

[I am invisible]

When asked what he can do regarding the red card situation he said "I'm running out of idea's"

To a certain extent we’re just waiting for young players to gain a bit of wisdom: wisdom enough to know when to calm things down and control the über-enthusiasm and über-commitment; and also wisdom enough to learn how to apply the dark arts and get away with it (I appreciate Arteta trying to bring a bit of that back to our game, but right now a lot of these guys have no subtlety about it).

The other side of it is going to come down to Arteta - we need him to start going to war on this in his pressers and start putting some pressure on the referees association. Go through the data every week and highlight the ridiculously high fouls-to-bookings ratio. Highlight the zero-tolerance, pedantic approach that is applied to us for every minor offence vs what other players at other clubs routinely get away with. How is a team that’s universally regarded as soft also getting hammered with more bookings and sending offs than anyone else? Something doesn’t add up here.

Basically Arteta needs to change the narrative because this is a reputation and perception issue as much as anything else. At the moment we’re regarded as ill-disciplined by the footballing world and therefore deserving of what we get. And we’re also regarded as timid and meek by referees - they’re itching to make a name for themselves and dish out cards, and they do it to us because we don’t kick up a fuss. Arteta needs to start kicking up a fuss. He needs to start changing the perception of us from ill-disciplined to victims of bias (unconscious or otherwise). Klopp and Pep would do it. Conte and Mourinho would do it. Wenger and Fergie would have done it. Even if the refs were 100% in the right, we should still be putting them and their decisions in the spotlight. If it makes them think twice about even one booking then it’s worth it. And all it’s cost us is some words.

[KSE Comedy Club]

The discipline is shocking in this team tbh.

Same with all the time wasting fuckery - just stop it!

Gabriel got a stupid yellow for taking too long on a FK - on another day, he gets a second yellow whilst defending and gets sent off.
It's retarded.

By the letter of the law, MO was able to do what he did to Martinelli, but the majority of people agree that he a just a total cunt face and should have just cautioned him.

Also, it's clear that Lacazette IS NOT a striker.

All I ever hear is people commenting on him 'working hard, holding up the ball, and his link up play' - but he hardly ever shoots or scores.

He is more like a midfielder tbh

[KSE Comedy Club]

To a certain extent we’re just waiting for young players to gain a bit of wisdom: wisdom enough to know when to calm things down and control the über-enthusiasm and über-commitment; and also wisdom enough to learn how to apply the dark arts and get away with it (I appreciate Arteta trying to bring a bit of that back to our game, but right now a lot of these guys have no subtlety about it).

The other side of it is going to come down to Arteta - we need him to start going to war on this in his pressers and start putting some pressure on the referees association. Go through the data every week and highlight the ridiculously high fouls-to-bookings ratio. Highlight the zero-tolerance, pedantic approach that is applied to us for every minor offence vs what other players at other clubs routinely get away with. How is a team that’s universally regarded as soft also getting hammered with more bookings and sending offs than anyone else? Something doesn’t add up here.

Basically Arteta needs to change the narrative because this is a reputation and perception issue as much as anything else. At the moment we’re regarded as ill-disciplined by the footballing world and therefore deserving of what we get. And we’re also regarded as timid and meek by referees - they’re itching to make a name for themselves and dish out cards, and they do it to us because we don’t kick up a fuss. Arteta needs to start kicking up a fuss. He needs to start changing the perception of us from ill-disciplined to victims of bias (unconscious or otherwise). Klopp and Pep would do it. Conte and Mourinho would do it. Wenger and Fergie would have done it. Even if the refs were 100% in the right, we should still be putting them and their decisions in the spotlight. If it makes them think twice about even one booking then it’s worth it. And all it’s cost us is some words.

Indeed, it is about time it was brought up.

Interestingly, one of the people on the chat on SSN this morning was talking about the number of Yellow and Red cards we have had - but by contrast, we actually don't commit that many fouls - so he was at least brining the conversation to the table to some extent

[Marc Overmars]

The discipline is shocking in this team tbh.

Same with all the time wasting fuckery - just stop it!

Gabriel got a stupid yellow for taking too long on a FK - on another day, he gets a second yellow whilst defending and gets sent off.
It's retarded.

By the letter of the law, MO was able to do what he did to Martinelli, but the majority of people agree that he a just a total cunt face and should have just cautioned him.

Also, it's clear that Lacazette IS NOT a striker.

All I ever hear is people commenting on him 'working hard, holding up the ball, and his link up play' - but he hardly ever shoots or scores.

He is more like a midfielder tbh

Lacashite had scored over 90 goals in the 3 seasons prior to signing for us.

We’ve totally neutered his game. We have a player here who is capable of scoring regularly for us but now can’t buy a goal because of the role he’s being asked to play. He shits himself now when presented with chances to score. He’s also never in the box looking to get on the end of a move which should be bread and butter for any striker. Terrible movement and instincts.

[Letters]

We don't create enough. Hate to say it but Spurs carve teams open, we just don't - although weirdly we did against them, the way we broke with pace in the NLD was brilliant. We just don't do it often enough.

[GP]

Lacashite had scored over 90 goals in the 3 seasons prior to signing for us.

We’ve totally neutered his game.

Nah it's just easy to score in France.

[dazthegooner]

Ref watch on Skysports has said that the sending off was correct he also said it's also ok to kick puppies*

*Second part not true*

[Mac76]

i had to listen on the radio last night as i couldn't get a decent 'TV signal'

just watched some quick highlights - Martinelli was two yellow-card incidents but it does seem a bit wierd - the ref's played advantage but at that point he's already decided to book him. But if he'd stopped the game and booked him straight away, the second one wouldn't have happened

so the ref sort of caused the second booking but still Martinelli still had to commit two fouls

at the end of the day if we've got a bad disciplinary record it's because Arteta lets Xhaka off every time he gets booked or sent off, so the rest probably think that's the way to get into his good books...

[I am invisible]

Ref watch on Skysports has said that the sending off was correct he also said it's also ok to kick puppies*

*Second part not true*

I'm sure it can be technically justified as a red, but Oliver has really had to dig deep here to come up with something that would work!

Was Martinelli really so much of a danger to his fellow players or such an outrageous cheat that he needed to be removed from the field of play with that much urgency?

Bottom line: if that was Harry Kane or Marcus Rashford or Sadio Mane (or pretty much anyone except one of our players) would that have been a red? Would it have even been a booking? Would it have even been a talking to?

[IBK]

Happy with this result. A win away from home against the EPL form team (aside from Citeh) that won four out of five before the winter break, including against Manure. This was a test, and we passed it. We are in 5th place in the table, having placed 1 game less than Manure behind us and 2 less than West Ham - 1 point in front. 2 home games coming up. Let's not focus on our strikers or Martinelli's red.