A referee’s job is to not agree with rules but enforce them. There is zero policy which says their decisions must be based on making a game entertaining for the viewer.
No protocol exists where their judgement should be altered by what happened (or didn’t) earlier in the same match or in another fixture.
Every summer representatives of the 20 Prem clubs meet with the relevant bodies to discuss any tweaks in certain laws for the upcoming season. So, managers and players were aware that officials were going to be stricter on perceived time wasting, such as kicking the ball away to stop a restart. How far the ball is kicked has zero bearing on this being a booking offense. One of your peers getting away with the action doesn’t mean the same will apply to you.
If you’re thinking you read a similar article a few weeks ago you would be correct. I assumed I wouldn’t have to write a piece so identical so soon.
Because whatever you think of Declan Rice’s red card against Brighton, no Gunner should have been kicking the ball away again this season.
You can accuse Michael Oliver of corruption, point how others escaped cards, accuse the whole Prem of having an agenda against us, etc.
The fact remains if Trossard doesn’t kick the ball when the whistle is blown, he doesn’t give the refs a decision to make.
Some of the entitlement from Gooners is astounding. It’s not up to us to like the laws made but to respect them. Some are asking for Trossard to escape a second yellow because they think the rule is nonsense.
Yet the whole rules changed because of the increase in the dark arts. Those in power haven’t decided to have a zero-tolerance policy out of boredom. They got tired of the rules being manipulated. The same players who are now asking for common sense are the same who created the issue by their deceit.
That’s what Roy Keane wanted to hear, some accountability. Yes, Mikel Arteta can still hug Trossard on the touchline, but will he privately be reminding the Belgian his decision-making cost us points?
In public our boss might feel it helps his squad to create an ‘us against the world’ mentality, but it would be worrying if that’s how he truly felt.
His job is to identify the small margins which separate the contenders to winners.
The only points the Gunners have dropped this campaign was when having a man disadvantage. That was due to a weak mentality and lack of composure.
The only way for the Spaniard to fix that is first to recognize the issue.
A section of our fan base have not shown the class Mr Keane asked for making Sunday’s red card at the Etihad more controversial then reality.
They either have mis-reported information such as Man City paying Mr Oliver to teach in Saudi Arabia his motive for helping them. City’s owners are from a different country! Of course, they failed to mention how City felt our first goal should have been disallowed, which in an instance makes conspiracy theories a myth.
All while having a childish lack of accountability.
You would tell a child unwanted behaviour does not become acceptable just because you witnessed someone else get away with it.
So, no Trossard isn’t allowed to kick the ball away just because you have seen others do the same without consequences.
Oh, and let’s be honest that we blatantly time wasted in that second half. I personally loved it as over the years we been too nice.
I have heard comments the last few days such as Mr Oliver shouldn’t be involved in another Arsenal game. Say this out loud and think how silly it sounds.
Someone should be demoted in their job for booking a player because they kicked the ball away when that’s the rule. It would be like getting caught speeding and your defence being that it was only slightly over the limit, and you see others do the same.
It’s such the wrong energy to have. Our focus should be on our pride for what we managed in Manchester. Not complaining.
As Mr Keane asked, ‘show some class sometimes’.
Dan Smith
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Until Arsenal bring in a natural and traditional Striker like Viktor Gyokeres It will be very difficult to Win any Trophy this season. He is a man who uses half chances and converts them. Martinelli cannot use these chance to get us a goal. A man who can score three past Man City or any other team. Lets buy trophies this season at 85 Million pounds and we shall be assured of at least 2 Trophies this season.
Must you mention Martinelli in every conversation ? Anyway he is not a striker
Technically he was right in sending off the Belgian but where is the consistency.
Am convinced there will be no improvement, because of no repercussions of the officials transgressions.
The problem is Howard Webb himself, not all times a good referee make that’s transition to manage and lead
8 seconds between kicking the ball and the whistle. This is so different to a dead ball. If your leg is already moving to the ball before the whistle, are you supposed to control the flow of your leg in that split second. This is a dumb decision. You can argue that Rice was stupid but this is very dumb officiating.
I doubt you have played football before. Why not turn footballers to robots.
8 seconds? Do you mean milliseconds?
Maybe he wanted to say 0.8 seconds
Do you know how long 8 seconds is ?
Like Paul Merson said ( he did play football ) you can tell by where he kicked the ball he had heard the whistle
👍
Remove emotions from football (most especially clash of Titans) and the excitement goes of.
Every neutrals would have been bored watching that game because Trossard kicked the ball away while watching Raya laying down multiple times.
Yes, it’s a bookable offence but leniency is required to Very emotional games. We do see Ramos and co during El-clasicos
afterwards
My concern with this line is that I’m not convinced trossard had enough time after the whistle to react to it. If that’s the case, then I don’t see how you can really blame him and the best you can say is he was unlucky (which is allowed in football, you c can be unlucky).
Imo, though, the ref should have used his discretion and given trossard the benefit of the doubt there. I don’t think the rule is meant to stop unintentional time wasting – otherwise there’s absolutely no reason you could reasonably give as to why the brighton player and doku weren’t booked. Intent has to matter here, surely.
The rice one was different – there is almost no doubt DR knew what he was doing as he effectively tackled a player taking a freekick. Odd that many pundits came out supporting rice but not trossard. Imo that is genuine bias towards a well-liked, English player, funnily enough.
I was expecting this article, especially from Dan.
Here’s my take: when there are consistent inconsistencies, conspiracies naturally arise. Neither those who support a conspiracy nor those who deny it can definitively prove their points. It all boils down to beliefs. You, Dan, don’t believe there’s a conspiracy, while many others do. No argument can definitively prove one side over the other; it’s all about beliefs.
If everything were truly clear and transparent, people might not resort to their beliefs, and conspiracies wouldn’t be a thing.
So far, referees aren’t helping their case by being massively inconsistent in their decisions. From an onlooker’s perspective, certain patterns always emerge if you look hard enough. If anyone wants to eliminate conspiracies in football, they should focus on the inconsistencies shown by officials and push for consistency. Saying there’s no conspiracy is like debating the existence of God—try convincing anyone.
One thing is factual: inconsistencies and conspiracies are natural side effects. It’s human nature to seek patterns when faced with inconsistent outcomes. I can’t complain. And personally, knowing how the world revolves around money and businesses committed to making a profit, it’s not far-fetched to think some conspiracies might hold true.
@Daulat quite an intelligent response I concur 👌and nothing to add for me
Disagree mate
If I can find one example of a decision going in our favour then a conspiracy/agenda will would makes zero sense
For example ,
Let’s say Mr Oliver is part of this corruption to hurt Arsenal
Why wouldn’t he disallow our first goal ?
There was nothing to disallow in the first goal. If you watched closely, the free kick was taken after his whistle, so he can only disallow himself to be honest in this case, and that would be a great thing for football.
I agree mate there’s nothing wrong with the goal but your missing the point
Your saying the reff is corrupt , he’s part of an agenda to stop Arsenal so if he had a reason to disallow the goal wouldn’t he not take it ?
Think you might have them stumped there Dan 😂
It’s obvious lol
The moment Arsenal are ever awarded a penalty ….that wouldn’t happen if there was this nationwide conspiracy
We’re talking about football here. In that context, inconsistences and conspiracies are completely different.
In order to understand the difference, it’s necessary to understand what a conspiracy means. The definition is:
noun: “a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.”
So, anyone who believes that there is a conspiracy against Arsenal believes that different officials in charge of different EPL games are working together as a group to a pre-determined plan in order to deliberately disadvantage Arsenal in the EPL by unlawful means.
You’re right that persuading someone who has gone down that rabbit hole to the contrary is probably impossible – but that doesn’t make their view any less nonsensical, does it.
The fact that we have had two players sent off has nothing to do with “weak mentality” and more to do with sheer stupiditity.It is up to our Manager to get the message across and ensure that we keep eleven men on the park.With regard to the input from Roy Keane,he would not last 5 minutes in today’s game which is fast turning football into a no contact sport.Ironical that we have two guys sent off for non contact offences.
Quite right.
Dan, I don’t think you replied to a previous point made about Mr Oliver with regards to our match against city115
He said he didn’t want to send off Kovacic, as he didn’t want to spoil the spectacle.
How do you explain that decision versus his decision to follow the rules against Trossard?
Because officiating in this country is poor mate and not consistent but that’s not a conspiracy
I’m not of the conspiracy theory notion but punishment melted out for an insignificant mistake defined the whole game.
I just found out the Kovacic case, which I feel should be the better decision.
What was supposed to be “CLASH OF THE TITANS” became the most boring game of the season
I dont believe there’s an anti Arsenal conspiracy, however…
There is an alarming amount of inconsistency when it comes to decisions made by officials.
Yes, officials are there to enforce the rules but there is scope for interpretation of actions which though subjective are often baffling. On numerous past occasions a player who’s already on yellow card has not received a seconded yellow for an action that appears to warrant a second yellow card, but not received one?
Ahead of this season clubs were told (yet again)that players crowding the referee would not be tolerated & that holding in the box at set pieces would be clamped down on…but there’s been little evidence of either of these “rules” being enforced.
The allocation of “added on time” by the fourth official is completely arbitrary & often suspect.
It’s little surprise that conspiracy theories abound when PGMOL officials are permitted to work in leagues that are owned by countries that also effectively own premier league clubs.
Given Roy Keane’s history as a footballer & outbursts as a pundit he’s the last person on earth to be recommending that Arteta show some class.
Officials are inconsistent, but I think you’ll find that they’re inconsistent with every other club in the EPL over a season. Unfortunately, like players and coaches match officials do make blatant mistakes, don’t always use common sense etc., whatever.
Over a season these things often balance themselves out one way or another, but it’s got nothing to do with “looney-tunes” conspiracy theories.
And speaking of Roy Keane, he was probably zoning out during the match counting the goals his beloved team would have conceded if they were playing 10 men against City at Etihad.
Apparently, he never reached to the final count before the final whistle of the match. Of course he is pissed.
I would have to support and agree with Dan and say he deserved to go
He got a stupid yellow
Makes a lazy challenge and could or have got a yellow for that but he then decides to hoof the ball away.
If as he has said he didn’t hear the whistle and decided to punt the ball across and up field to apparently to Martinelli then what a poor pass.
You don’t need to have played the game as a professional to know he knew exactly what he was doing and pure stupidity got him sent off
I will always stick up for our players and did for DC when he got sent off for the previous week for the same offence which imo was harsh.
LT Knowing what happened to DC should have been smarter and not put oliver in a position to make a call like that.