Chavs v Arsenal Match Reaction

[Niall_Quinn]

Ah yes, Oliver Holt has figured it out. Mind games. That's what Maureen and Costa do, so everything else can be overlooked.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...er-United.html

How many more ways can they find to apologise for that despicable club?

[Niall_Quinn]

This was never more apparent than in the game’s central incident, that outbreak of all-Brazilian jogo feio just before half-time. Tangling under a high ball, Costa gouged and then swiped at Laurent Koscielny’s face. Pushed away by the Frenchman, Costa leapt up and chest-bumped him to the floor. So, three potential yellow cards right there, two of them for Costa. At which point Costa was pulled away by Gabriel. Bad move. Like a virus, he had a new host. And so he was off: chuntering, jostling, niggling, muttering in Gabriel’s ear and basically begging, pleading with him to kick him. Come on. Do it. Kick me.

And so Gabriel kicked him, or rather flicked a leg back at him – bingo Diego! – right in front of the referee. At which point Costa became instantly the guardian of the game, football’s last true gentleman, shocked – shocked! – to see such rough play, shaking his head sadly as Gabriel exited pursued by a steward.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...-heist-arsenal

[IBK]

The sendings off only and general twat display from the ref serves to mask what was essentially another piss poor performance from us. Before Gabriel was sent off we hadnt laid a finger on them, though Chelsea were just as crap. The most likely outcome without the refs intervention was a nil-nil draw, or a Hazard dive giving them a penalty. We are not a good team, the performance at home against Pool should have shown us that even before the CL debacle.

This. We were on the wrong side of a shit referee (although the Chavs were unhappy about the Hazard possible pen) but we were average to say the least before the first sending off - and this against a Chelsea team said before Wednesday at least to be in disarray. I am not surprised at all at dropping 3 points today - with this Arsenal team no one sane would have bet against us kick starting Chelsea's EPL season. Bemoaning refereeing decisions masks the fact that our season - and this team - looks like its going nowhere.

[Kano]

We could have got a certain nasty, vicious cunt who also happens to be an outstanding footballer for £28mill and £90kpw but he didn't have enough quality. Hasn't taken lomg for the penny pinching to bite us in the arse. Goals and balls is what we needed to buy in during the summer. But it was impossible.

Vidal actually crashed off the road when he heard about that wage offer.

[Niall_Quinn]

Vidal actually crashed off the road when he heard about that wage offer.

Yeah, he was that pissed!

[Özim]

At the end of the day, it was a big game and we lost our heads and got a man sent off, you can't control what the referee does but you can not give him a decision to make, Gabriel lost it and got sent off, yes Costa should have been sent off as well but he wasn't, nothing we can do about that.

We lost the game in the end and have lost Gabriel for 3 matches, considering our rubbish squad depth in defence and up front that's a problem. You can make all the excuses you like, but it's nothing new for us, we're always the ones crying wolf and getting beaten, that never use to be the case 10+ years ago, quite the opposite in fact.

[Niall_Quinn]

Is that the wolf who drank the spilt milk?

[Maestro]

And therein lies the problem, or a problem.

I'm an idealist. I like to think the best of people. And maybe that's naive but I still like to think it.
I like to think that referees aren't corrupt. If they are then what's the point?
But in the first of our two Cup Finals of late when we got back to 2-2 we were denied about 4 penalties, 2 maybe 3 of which were stonewall. We got there in the end but it did seem like the ref was doing all he could to stop us.

I didn't see today's game as I was on the plane home but from what I've heard we were holding our own and then got completely fucked over by the ref. And while we're all Arsenal fans and thus hardly neutral, I saw Garth Crooks say pretty much the same.

So...yeah, we can replace Wenger and that may fix some repeated mistakes (although the new guy will have flaws too) but while the billionaires are spunking left, right and centre and refs are doing this sort of thing I don't care who the manager is, winning the league will be next to impossible.

Football
I miss the days when it was a sport.

what has today's events got to do with wenger staying, you seriously had to find a straw in there to somehow defend wenger. everyone near enough universally agreed that what happened was not was not wenget's fault but yeah let's stick a "wenger in" line in there. you come out with some utter bullshit letters, and too right people are starting to call you out on it

[selassie]

This. We were on the wrong side of a shit referee (although the Chavs were unhappy about the Hazard possible pen) but we were average to say the least before the first sending off - and this against a Chelsea team said before Wednesday at least to be in disarray. I am not surprised at all at dropping 3 points today - with this Arsenal team no one sane would have bet against us kick starting Chelsea's EPL season. Bemoaning refereeing decisions masks the fact that our season - and this team - looks like its going nowhere.

Yeah agree with this, this season looks like it's going to be an exact replica of last season. We'll hover around 4th place until Xmas then get our skates on when the possibility of finishing out of the top 4 is at stakes.

[Power n Glory]

We can't be certain we'd have lost that game without the sending offs. I won't speculate on the outcome if Dean had done his properly. But some of our players failed to turn up and the bullshit of Costa and the ref papers over it. I think I'd have smacked Ramsey clean in the face for not shooting when he had a clear chance on goal. That happened just before the Costa incident and could have flipped the tie on its head had he'd scored. He had a bad game and they were exploiting our left side all game.

Cazorla had another forgetful game. Some very poor passing decisions that cost us possession or just not aware at all and getting mugged off the ball. That's before the sending off. At least with a ban we can stick Ramsey back in there and maybe correct this one. He blows too hot and cold in that position and we need someone more consistent. Not good enough.

Ozil. Another non performance in a big game. Impose yourself for goodness sakes, man!

How many times did we attempt to pass it out from the back when under real pressure? I saw dumb decisions. At 10 men I remember we were still playing pretty in our half when under pressure and then saw stupidity with someone trying to play it long into Theo when there was no need to and no pressure on us which turned over possession again.....it was a frustrating game.

Let's hope Coquelin is not injured because he's the only one that looked to be really up for this game. We conceded a stupid goal on a set piece and the players should have been prepared for that. The marking was non existent. Bah. Not happy with the players at all. They need to grow a pair.