Stoke v Arsenal Match Reaction

[Letters]

Knock yourself out. But considering what's been said about Ox and Rambo in recent weeks, I think it's worth having a different thread discussing the youth players.

So long as I can say that Wenger is flawless in that thread too I'm happy.

[Power n Glory]

So long as I can say that Wenger is flawless in that thread too I'm happy.

I expect nothing less.

[Kano]

So long as I can say that Wenger is flawless in that thread too I'm happy.

You've got it all wrong. Billionaires running amok, two FA Cups, beating Utd away and two world class players since financial imrprovemnt has to be in there, otherwise it's just not the same.

[Özim]

Fans of every club moan about the referee pretty much every game

Maybe they do I don't know myself, I've just watched some of the challenges people complain about and if we got some of those we'd get a foul for every single tackle against us in the game.

[fakeyank]

You've got it all wrong. Billionaires running amok, two FA Cups, beating Utd away and two world class players since financial imrprovemnt has to be in there, otherwise it's just not the same.

Dont forget beating Bayern and City!

[Letters]

Dont forget beating Bayern and City!

Us

Wenger



...although given that we're top of the league it's a little less silly than all the balls about what a bumbling incompetent ™ our manager is...

[Niall_Quinn]

But when it was us, was it not met with an absolute zero-tolerance approach from the FA, and a record number of red cards? Was our disciplinary record not widely condemned by all and sundry as being a disgrace? We did everything that was asked of us - we cleaned up our act, and went from having the worst disciplinary record in the league to the best - and our reward was for the footballing world to laugh as opponents kicked lumps out of us every week. It quite literally took broken bones and career-ending injuries before anyone started questioning what was going on, and even now it feels like opponents get 10 free fouls to every one of ours before a card comes out?

Absolutely, we were slaughtered for giving back as good as we got. I'm not trying to defend shitkickers like Shawcross, or the poxy FA and media that allow the game to descend into a brawl and then pretends we have the best league in the world. All I was saying is we did get a bit pansy and for a while there it was a fair point, we didn't fancy the rough stuff which is part and parcel of this league. The OTT stuff by the likes of Shawcross, that's shit by any standard. The fucker can't defend at all, he fouls and gets away with it and that's his whole game. He fouled Bif 20 times on Saturday, at least. And the ref decided to ignore the rules. We've suffered this for season after season, likely all based on those conceptions fuelled by the media. You see Alexis get kicked into a dugout, Debuchy have his career here ruined, and then Gabriel gets sent off for what? The whole concept of violence and foul play is bizarre as the rules stand. No sportsmanship any more, just gamesmanship.

[Xhaka Can’t]

I was listening to some of their fans calling into 606 yesterday, and it's amazing how to this day they still seem determined to miss the point. It was never a question of whether Shawcross intended to break Ramsey's leg or not, as most of them seem to think - whilst I have no doubt that he meant to go in heavy and hard, I don't think for one second that he actually wanted to break anyone's leg. No, the issue was, and still is, that it was the inevitable outcome of a situation that had been allowed to develop in this country, where it had become acceptable practice (not to mention highly amusing) to kick the crap out of our players every week, and watch the 'Arsenal cry-babies' whine about it. How many times over the years did we hear phrases like "We know how you've got to play against Arsenal..." and "Arsenal don't like it wen you kick them..." etc? How many times did we have to sit through the sneering old-boys club on MOTD laughing about it, and spouting tired, antiquated lines from 30 years ago about how it's a man's game? Once it had become that socially acceptable, is it any wonder that refs started turning a blind eye to it?

For Stoke and their fans, I can understand that they maybe see it as a one-off freak incident - one of those unfortunate things that just happen. For us though, it was 38 games a season, every season, that we had to put up with that kind of assault, and it was quite literally a matter of when, not if, it happened again. After watching it happy to Diaby, and then Eduardo, and then Ramsey in consecutive seasons, I can totally understand why Wenger was so angry about it, and why he wouldn't accept any apologies - too little, far, far, far too late. Perhaps Stoke and their fans can count themselves unlucky in that it was them who broke the camel's back, and not one of the other 18 teams in the league who regularly riled their players up to go out and play the same way, but there you go... it was them, and they need to take responsibility for it, instead of blaming everyone under the sun except themselves, including the victim! Seriously, anyone who genuinely believes that Ramsey broke his own leg on a blade of grass, and that poor, emotionally-fragile Ryan Shawcross is the real victim because he had his feelings hurt, really needs to have a word with themselves...

That is a superb post.

[IBK]

I was listening to some of their fans calling into 606 yesterday, and it's amazing how to this day they still seem determined to miss the point. It was never a question of whether Shawcross intended to break Ramsey's leg or not, as most of them seem to think - whilst I have no doubt that he meant to go in heavy and hard, I don't think for one second that he actually wanted to break anyone's leg. No, the issue was, and still is, that it was the inevitable outcome of a situation that had been allowed to develop in this country, where it had become acceptable practice (not to mention highly amusing) to kick the crap out of our players every week, and watch the 'Arsenal cry-babies' whine about it. How many times over the years did we hear phrases like "We know how you've got to play against Arsenal..." and "Arsenal don't like it wen you kick them..." etc? How many times did we have to sit through the sneering old-boys club on MOTD laughing about it, and spouting tired, antiquated lines from 30 years ago about how it's a man's game? Once it had become that socially acceptable, is it any wonder that refs started turning a blind eye to it?

For Stoke and their fans, I can understand that they maybe see it as a one-off freak incident - one of those unfortunate things that just happen. For us though, it was 38 games a season, every season, that we had to put up with that kind of assault, and it was quite literally a matter of when, not if, it happened again. After watching it happy to Diaby, and then Eduardo, and then Ramsey in consecutive seasons, I can totally understand why Wenger was so angry about it, and why he wouldn't accept any apologies - too little, far, far, far too late. Perhaps Stoke and their fans can count themselves unlucky in that it was them who broke the camel's back, and not one of the other 18 teams in the league who regularly riled their players up to go out and play the same way, but there you go... it was them, and they need to take responsibility for it, instead of blaming everyone under the sun except themselves, including the victim! Seriously, anyone who genuinely believes that Ramsey broke his own leg on a blade of grass, and that poor, emotionally-fragile Ryan Shawcross is the real victim because he had his feelings hurt, really needs to have a word with themselves...

Yup. No mystery that we as a technical side seem to fall foul of this archaic approach to football....

[LDG]

https://youtu.be/mQzuhiqwR7E