Brentford vs Arsenal | Nov 25 1730

[Niall_Quinn]

Despite the result, I do agree with this.
We do seem to be muddling through but we are surely going to get found out sooner or later.

It was very obvious at the end of last season. There's no striker at the club, except a backup - who also happens to be leading goal scorer. Again, obvious. Strikers are there to score goals. When you don't have any, you don't score enough goals. You can't win a title if you can't score goals. Definitely not winning the title this season. The gypos have the tall geezer who looks like a woman. That'll be enough to see them over the line.

[Letters]

Erm, Newcastle?

That was a travesty. Huge injustice for me.

I actually feel better about that since I heard the audio. They were commendably thorough and I actually agree with most of their rulings - the ball looked over the line but you can't be definitive with that angle, see Japan vs Germany. There was no clear offside or handball. The thing I do think they got wrong was the foul. Definite push for me, so I do think we were wrong so in that sense we were robbed - but it was of 1 point, not 3. We were never going to score in that game, which is the concern this season.

You cite some things which have gone against us this season - correctly. I've cited some things which went for us. You can do that in any season of course. Overall I don't think we've been particularly hard done by. And agreed about the defence, it's a big improvement this season and important for a title push. But up front we're looking a bit lightweight. We don't have a Haaland or, dare I say it, a Kane. And that could cost us long term.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Erm, Newcastle?

That was a travesty. Huge injustice for me.

We’ve had VAR fuck us over at Chelsea (the handball).

Martinelli offside v Everton. That was all kinds of wrong.

We have been excellent in defence. That is not luck. But it is a huge reason why we’ve managed to rack up points.

Two of the instances you’ve cited are more about how the rules of the game are bullshit rather than VAR going against us. By the rules of the game you can argue that the Everton player wasn’t in control of the ball when it was kicked against him and thus it can’t count as a back pass therefore Edward was offside. I think that’s bollocks but that’s the rule. Same with Saliba handball against Chelsea, the idea that your arms are in an unnatural position and you don’t use them to balance yourself when jumping is horse dung but again those are the very silly rules.

[Mac76]

Two of the instances you’ve cited are more about how the rules of the game are bullshit rather than VAR going against us. By the rules of the game you can argue that the Everton player wasn’t in control of the ball when it was kicked against him and thus it can’t count as a back pass therefore Edward was offside. I think that’s bollocks but that’s the rule. Same with Saliba handball against Chelsea, the idea that your arms are in an unnatural position and you don’t use them to balance yourself when jumping is horse dung but again those are the very silly rules.

i was about to say I thought it was clearer when it was 'hand-to-ball' not 'ball-to-hand' that was the decider, but then a defender could simply hold their arms out wide to block a shot past them - I guess the current rule is to prevent that but it does get a bit silly - personally i'd have quite a high bar for handball, it's a classic offence where you just have to apply a bit of common sense but expecting VAR officials to have any of that is way beyond realistic

[Niall_Quinn]

I actually feel better about that since I heard the audio. They were commendably thorough and I actually agree with most of their rulings - the ball looked over the line but you can't be definitive with that angle, see Japan vs Germany. There was no clear offside or handball. The thing I do think they got wrong was the foul. Definite push for me, so I do think we were wrong so in that sense we were robbed - but it was of 1 point, not 3. We were never going to score in that game, which is the concern this season.

You cite some things which have gone against us this season - correctly. I've cited some things which went for us. You can do that in any season of course. Overall I don't think we've been particularly hard done by. And agreed about the defence, it's a big improvement this season and important for a title push. But up front we're looking a bit lightweight. We don't have a Haaland or, dare I say it, a Kane. And that could cost us long term.

Or, to look at it another way, the anuses had three, four maybe five opportunities to not cheat. And they missed them all. That's some sort of fucked up reffing, well beyond the threshold for incompetence or simple mistakes. We'll never prove it, but some of them walked away with envelopes that day. It's not about the win or the loss, it's about the betting. Very obvious now, they don't try to conceal it. Saw an incident a week ago, some club (can't remember) had a goal chalked off for a foul that was tame compared to the blatant foul on ??? Gabriel was it?

Obviously VAR is a total bust. We were way, way better off when refs just made mistakes because they didn't have the benefit of a second look. Funnily enough, they got it right far more often that VAR. VAR is psychological, not scientific. They can now cheat in plain sight because people literally defer to authority rather than their own eyesight. You see an obvious foul and then you hear the VAR racketeers say it was no foul. Well, "experts" have looked, so you must be mistaken. Right?

Nah. It's just blatant cheating right under your nose. The league will be decided by those bastards and they'll make bank in the process. It's just like everything else these days. Our memories and nostalgia provide the inertia that prevents us catching up with the obvious.