Match reaction v Bayern

[Letters]

"And Liverpool have played their Joker..."

[Fist of Lehmann]

That's the problem. When you leave it up to referees to decide there is inevitably inconsistency and people want a clear rule. When you have a blanket rule people want there to be a level of interpretation. Knowing FIFA they'll make it worse.

Maybe you could leave it up to the fouled team. Do you want the penalty or the guy sent off?

Interesting. You'd almost always go for the sending off unless it was late late on, it's a big advantage and it pretty much ruins the contest.

That for me was the big shame of the night, that we never got to see how things might have been 11 vs 11.

It's also why you can't read too much into any of the performances, it was a game under exceptional circumstances.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Disgusting, Pathetic, Disgrace - Ozil received a trashing on Twitter from Arsenal fans.

To me Podolski's tweet reads like a call for unity. He knows full well that the media aren't interested in helping "the collective", nor is he naive enough to think that the English football press could be considered "friends" or that they could be counted on to stand together for the good of the club.

He is right however to expect some support from supporters.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

Niall Quinn already touched on this point but twitter really isn't indicative of the general mood of Arsenal fans. As a wise man, now banned, on here once said, "Twitter is for idiots". It's infested with over reactionary and moronic posts regardless of what the reality is. And all famous people get dogs abuse on twitter (see Jimmy Kimmel's hilarious videos). If Ozil is really that affected by comments online he really should remove his online social media prescene or man up. The day Ozil starts getting boos and groans within or outside the stadium will be the day that he's lost the fans and that's a long way off.

Anyway, all in all Ozil does seem like a confidence player who needs to feel loved. It would be good if we he had a really good chant that the fans could sing next game to inspire him ........ as Syn said, we really should have saved Hey Jude for Ozil.

[JonasTC]

IMO it's about common sense although I realise that is not as common as the name implies.
Player is bearing down on goal, the last defender 'takes one for the team' by fouling them then what is an appropriate punishment?
It depends where the offence is and whether there is any chance of a covering defender getting there.
If it's in the box then I think a yellow card and penalty is enough, the team still gets their goal-scoring opportunity - arguably a better goal-scoring opportunity than the original chance.
Outside the box then it's trickier because a freekick with the defence back and a wall is not a clear opportunity to score. What do you do then? Send the player off? Award a penalty anyway on the basis that the player would have had a chance to score?

Me and my dad actually had a talk about that and we agreed that if you could somehow get non-corrupt refs, awarding a penalty and a yellow, even if its outside the box, would be optimal. It would make sure that defenders in most cases wouldnt foul the last player and the fans could get to see a wonderful goal/save or a penalty kick if the defender is stupid enough, and we would still be able to enjoy a match afterwards. Of course other rules still need to be upheld, so if the foul is too violent, he needs to be send off and so on.

[JonasTC]

Niall Quinn already touched on this point but twitter really isn't indicative of the general mood of Arsenal fans. As a wise man, now banned, on here once said, "Twitter is for idiots". It's infested with over reactionary and moronic posts regardless of what the reality is. And all famous people get dogs abuse on twitter (see Jimmy Kimmel's hilarious videos). If Ozil is really that affected by comments online he really should remove his online social media prescene or man up. The day Ozil starts getting boos and groans within or outside the stadium will be the day that he's lost the fans and that's a long way off.

Anyway, all in all Ozil does seem like a confidence player who needs to feel loved. It'd would be good if we he had a really good chant that the fans could sing next game to inspire him ........ as Syn said, we really should have saved Hey Jude for Ozil.

I think you're right, if the fans had a song for Özil i think it would do wonders, seriously.

[Power n Glory]

Were all talking about shitheads who are on Twitter I assume? Fuckheads called Faisal from London or Mpongwe Mbu-Ebola from Croydon.

From your last few posts, I assumed GW was included, unless you were on Twitter sending abuse to Ramsey, Merts and Ches.

[Kano]

According to the rules it's a red card and penalty, so it doesn't matter whether it would have been better 11 vs 11 (obviously it would have been), the fact is Chesney made a mistake and we got punished to the letter of the law.

I personally think they should award a goal, because penalty's can be missed (and often are) so if you're clean through with a tap in and then brought back and you miss the penalty you've been punished and the defending team get away with it, so you could just foul the player to give yourself a chance of stopping the goal.

Yes the double punishment is harsh, but those are the rules. If you had this chance missed the penalty and then lost 1-0 it was also be unfair to some extent.

Even if we'd played 11 vs 11 I couldn't see us going through, so I'm not that bothered to be honest, we started very well though but after the penalty we ran out of steam a bit and the game settled down. Bayern would have had spells in the game anyhow and with the players they have a draw probably would have been a good result for us.

In reality it's a triple punishment as you have a suspension for a straight red. Awarding a goal instead, for not actually putting the ball into the net, would then increase the chances of diving. It's an inherent rule within the game that you are only awarded a goal once the ball crosses the line, changing such a fundamental rule would be madness. Of course, the likelihood is that the player would have gone on to score of course, but balance and momentum can affect the easiest of chances as we have seen many times. There is no certainty of a goal until it actually crosses that white line.

[Power n Glory]

In reality it's a triple punishment as you have a suspension for a straight red. Awarding a goal instead, for not actually putting the ball into the net, would then increase the chances of diving. It's an inherent rule within the game that you are only awarded a goal once the ball crosses the line, changing such a fundamental rule would be madness. Of course, the likelihood is that the player would have gone on to score of course, but balance and momentum can affect the easiest of chances as we have seen many times. There is no certainty of a goal until it actually crosses that white line.

If a player intentionally handles the ball off the line like Suarez did, then it should be a red and automatic goal. That's just flagrant.

[Kano]

Football is full of immoralities, I'm not convinced that comes into the argument here. In a case like that, a red and a penalty works just fine. If you start to tinker with the most fundamental rule in football then everything is up for grabs. Players have done the very same thing before without the fuss, due to it being on a smaller stage.

[Özim]

In reality it's a triple punishment as you have a suspension for a straight red. Awarding a goal instead, for not actually putting the ball into the net, would then increase the chances of diving. It's an inherent rule within the game that you are only awarded a goal once the ball crosses the line, changing such a fundamental rule would be madness. Of course, the likelihood is that the player would have gone on to score of course, but balance and momentum can affect the easiest of chances as we have seen many times. There is no certainty of a goal until it actually crosses that white line.

Well yes true but you know the rules before you commit the foul so if you do it you know what's coming, the onus is on the players to be more careful, if you're rash and make a mistake then you have to accept what's coming.

People aren't happy about the rule but every knows about it, best way to avoid it is to think before you act I guess.