I was disappointed in some Gooners throughout last week. After the City game, our focus should have been on one of the greatest defensive performances in decades.
Our pride should have been apparent for a second half display we would have been incapable of producing for years.
Each and every player had earnt their standing ovation for leaving blood, sweat and tears on the pitch.
Yet, too much energy was wasted on conspiracy theories. There hasn’t been one explanation what the motive is, but there are those who exist who think that there is an agenda in English Football to stop Arsenal being successful.
Now if I make a choice to drive over the speed limit and get caught, I can’t in my defence argue that I witnessed over drivers get away with it.
As an adult I’m responsible for my actions.
Trossard last weekend made the choice to kick the ball away. He knew the rules and was aware he had already been booked.
He knew the consequences that potentially existed.
To deflect, a section of our fanbase analysed the entire 97 minutes to create a narrative that we had been harshly treated.
This included Doku kicking the ball back where the official asked, Haaland throwing the ball at Gabriel, and even last season’s fixture where Kovacic wasn’t shown a second yellow because the same ref ‘didn’t want to ruin the game’.
Should officiating be better? Of course,
Should we tolerate inconsistencies? No.
Yet there remains a huge difference between someone being bad at their jobs compared to deliberately sabotaging a team.
Yet in an era where content is available 24 hours, some now seem to want to scrutinize every decision being made.
AFTV have asked viewers to send in any instances they see of a player escaping sanctions for delaying a restart so they can compile a list proving how we get treated different.
Conveniently examples of when the Gunners benefit from incompetence has not been requested.
Because if that happened you could quickly prove that the idea that referees are corrupted makes little sense. Logically certain calls wouldn’t happen if ulterior motives existed.
Take this Saturday.
Already on a yellow Riccardo Calafiori trips Buonanotte, preventing a clear Leicester attack.
Maybe on this afternoon Sam Barrot had the ethos of not wanting to ruin the spectacle by putting us down to 10 men?
You know….just like Micheal Oliver’s’ thought process regarding Kovavic
I notice readers haven’t rushed to point out this inconsistency, nor has it been mentioned by YouTubers.
Yet you can’t have it both ways.
Steve Cooper said, ‘it’s a little beyond belief’ that our defender stayed on the pitch.
All of the Match of The Day pundits agreed.
So, is there a conspiracy against the Foxes?
I’m interested to see how many influencers admit in the next few days that this was a clear example of poor officiating benefitting us.
I guess Mr Barrot isn’t part of the agenda?
Dan
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it was actually good officiating and consistent with how they have said they will increase the threshold this season, Thomas partey was in position so it was not a breakaway and not stopping a promising attack in their definition. there have been 2/3 examples of this already this season when players have been on yellow cards and made the same challenge and no 2nd yellow card,
What is this in reference to?
You can tell it’s a “slow news day” when we have this debate regurgitated in yet another guise. Can’t we move on?
The final whistle has been blown; the game is finished. It makes not the slightest difference – just as with the previous game against City. Nor will it have any relevance to the standard of officials for the next game against Southampton.
Depends mate
If a Leicester player got away with it , it would be pointed out as another decision against us
Dan, a Leicester player did indeed get away with it ! Oliver Skipp, already on a yellow card, first commited a bad foul on Martinelli, and then in Saka ! His first yellow card was in the first half, and the foul on Martinelli was also in the first half.
I don’t think at Arsenal we are asking for any favour from the referees. If a referees are wrong they are wrong and if they are right they are right. They must look at the bad tackles especially on Saka
Oh it’s Dan. Have a nice day.
Thanks mate and cheers for taking the time to read my article then comment lol
Have a great day
Dan,
Have you considered what a law truly represents? If a law is applied selectively, can it really be considered a law at all? For instance, would you argue that the law regarding a yellow card for delay hasn’t been applied selectively? If you believe it has, then should a law that is selectively enforced really stand? Perhaps it should instead be left to the discretion of the referee, much like the varying severity of tackles that lead to yellow and red cards.
In my opinion, the concept of delaying a restart is subjective and should not be formalized as a law. Indeed, it is subjective since it has been given as a card to some players and not to others. Hence, not formalizing it as a law might also help reduce the number of conspiracy theories surrounding the issue.
Moreover, I don’t think expending valuable energy writing against others’ opinions about conspiracy theories is worthwhile. Everyone is entitled to their views. If some choose to focus on conspiracy theories, it seems counterproductive to expend similar energy trying to refute them.
Cheers!
I never get this ridiculous talk about “Referees, the Media and the FA etc having a bias against Arsenal. It’s people that want to be victims in every aspect of their life. Everyone and everything is always against them. Smh.
And it’s not just our own fans that have this victimhood mentality. On each and every Fan forum for any given club you always come across this exact thing.
On the Man United fans forums, their fans think that the media, Referees etc are biased againsts them because they are the biggest club in the world.
Liverpool fans same thing.
Chelsea and Man City fans always say: “The media, Referees, the FA, UEFA etc are all biased against them because they came in and distracted the traditional clubs authority.
Aston villa, Tottenham, West Ham etc fans think that the football world is against them because they dare challenges the establishment (Top clubs). They think the all the bad refereeing decision are done on purpose against them in order to maintain the status quo (Top clubs). For example, Just go and read some of the Spurs comments on the Spurs fans forums: They seriously believe that the Media, Referees and FA have been trying to help Arteta win the title since 2022. That the referees are deliberately giving us favourable decisions or letting us get away with everything.
Smh🤦♂️
In my day there was one rule. The referees decision is final, so let’s get on with game.
And to be honest many people on here have come up with their own conspiracy theories since Arteta showed up.
There is one very famous Conspiracy Theory that many still believe or will still push to this day. About one “Shirt Selling Genius”.
People are always looking to be victims or look for someone / something to label as a victim.
🤦♂️
You know what’s the biggest conspiracy of it all?
The Referees that have undertaken the biggest responsibility of officiating matches in the best football league in the world, are poor at it.
Calafiori was lucky not to be sent off. I wonder what the ref would say about that. But the ref also didn’t send off Ndidi when he kicked the ball away and he was already booked prior.
Also did you see the Chris Kavanaugh exempt Ugarte and Mazaroui when they kicked the ball away delaying the restart but booked Brennan for the same offense that game? And Kavanaugh gave second yellow for a feather touch on the ball. Call it what you will man. Conspiracy or deliberate inconsistency. Just semantics at this point. But the bigger conspiracy will be to believe that they are just incompetent.
Before you make comments on like this, see how many times the ex spurs man (skipp) committed leg breaking tackles and was only punished on the third foul…
Their player also obstructed a throw in at a time, and I don’t want to talk about the Ndidi case.
My point is that calafiori did not much wrong to be sent off, especially as the first yellow was harsh
I can’t argue against supporters from every club thinking their team is on the wrong end of decisions.
What does surprise me, and I looked into it a little bit, is that some referees get to oversee the same clubs on a regular basis (other refs also have clubs they referee more than others too).
By all accounts, referees who support a particular club never officiate on them. Likewise, a Liverpool supporting referee will also not work on Everton matches. This reduces the pool of referees for various matches and at least tries to eliminate any suggestion of bias.
So my view is that incompetence is the key word. If you’re incompetent then you are likely to be inconsistent in your thought processes