Once again the Arsenal and Switzerland international midfield star Granit Xhaka showed the reckless side of his game by launching into a rash, clumsy and fangerous tackle after giving the ball away cheaply and he was punished with yet another red card to make this home game against Burnley a lot tougher than it should have been for the last half an hour. And he will have been mightily relieved when Sanchez scored the match winning goal in the last minute.
THe only good thing is thst his sending off came not long after the Gunners had finally taken the lead against a spirited and hard working Burnley team. That goal came from the unexpected source of the head of Mustafi with Ozil claiming the assist with a whipped in corner.
We had been well on top up to that point but our finishing was not quite there and the visitors defended well. Mustafi had a great shout for a penalty turned down by the referee John Moss and while you cannot really com-plain about the red card he was wrong on that penalty and also gave seven minutes of injury time for some reason.
And then in that stoppage time he gave Burnley a penalty after a clip by Coquelin. There was minimal contact but there you go. THe one he got badly wrong was our own penalty and once again we pay a heavy price for a bad decision. But with less than a minute to go we got the win we deserved when Moss did award a spot kick after a raised boot from Mee caught Koscielny in the head.
With huge pressure on him Alexis Sanchez stepped up and calmy chipped it down the middle to grab the points and keep our title challenge alive…just.
All three major decisions the referee gave were correct. The 2 penalties and the red card. Congrats gooners!
true, but Mustafi should have gotten a penalty and Koscielny was offside.
He should. But I said THREE decisions.
Our players are coming back at the right f#*#*/g time.
Hello chelsea we are coming.
#COYG.
The third shouldn’t of mattered, Boss was offside.
Moss needs to spend more time presiding over his school than on an EPL pitch anytime soon.
Le Prof may be hanging with Xhaka in the Emirates bleachers the next few games, good riddance dumb $#%
He’s offside, but that’s the linesman’s job to call, not the ref’s.
True. The linesman who also suggested the red card, failed to spot the offside. Can’t blame the ref for that.
It is still a penalty, regardless of whether Koscielny was offside or not. Mee kicked him in the head, which is an instant pen.
you have no plan.. do you know how difficult the refs job is? no matter how good they are they are always being critisized and like the other on told it wasnt even his job to call offside.. people who have no plan are the loudest..
Come on really If Xhaka was a red card the guy that challenged ozil that went out injured should have got a red card the referee was not consistent come on really was that really a penalty?? if so mustafi should have been awarded a penalty so in essence our 97th minute was only fare it balanced out the match >>>>Arsenal did play well and deserved to win the match they won it I am glad
yep referee was great but what to do football fans hate it if people are reasonable and dont condemn referees ^^
I only saw the second half, so I’ll comment based only on that.
The defenders did a tremendous job today. All of them. Gabriel is playing well as a right back. ??
Special mention to Ramsey. He has been playing horribly, but today I saw a really good midfielder. No stupid flicks and stupid passes. Simple and great game from Ramsey.
Xhaka needs to read the rulebook. What the hell was that? It’s so stupid. Really disgusting. Needs a good talk from Wenger.
Anyway, we’re 2nd so yayayayayay
Sanchez is top scorer as well. ????
Definitely a better overall performance from Ramsey today, but his crossing was abysmal though, and first touch is still poor. His positioning still worries me as well, because he was in Burnley’s box so often. We were so open to the counter-attack, given Xhaka was constantly left on his own, has no pace, and is rash, with what we saw again from him today. Better opposition would have exploited this.
next one who has no plan.. ramsey was one of the candidates for MOTM for me.. you just have no sense and no plan of judging a player
Krish n’ chips the man with the plan … Praying for forth place glory … Ramsey was feckless in first half slightly better in second … But the fact that he and iwobi are … Along with Xhaka.. now regular starters is why we are failing to dominate teams even when we dominate possession … Lateral football silly flicks hopeful shooting … Need a quality replacement for carzola for second half of season to get best from ozil and Sanchez …
@Krish
I don’t judge a player after one or two games, or even months, I do it over a longer period. And over a VERY LONG PERIOD, Ramsey has not been good enough, and be quite some distance. I am actually amazed you cannot see this! Unless a player that only has one good season, should be given a contract for life in your books?
I don’t know how Ramsey did in the first half so maybe you’re right. But in the second half he gave a better overall performance.
Anyway, this is just one game and we will see if Ramsey has actually improved.
Unbelievable lol ?
We played better when Wenger got sent down the tunnel ?
You know we are ? when we celebrate a home win against Burnley as if we just won the World Cup! ?
lol it’s more about the conditions we won in and what this win means
Oh, You mean the Wenger conditions? ??
Lol it’s funny how this only got thumbed down once ?
Hahaha ?
The celebration was one of not dropping points, going 2nd and staying in the fight. But you already knew that and still are making such a sarcastic comment. Be happy like all the Gooners should be.
Okayyyy… I let you Carry on deluding yourselves then lol ?
We aren’t winning no major title playing like that mate.
What’s the purpose of football at all then? What’s the purpose of supporting a team at all when one can not find oneself cheering at a team’s success, esp after most of our rivals dropped points this gw? We may not win title but we did go one step closer. Perhaps you would be happier if we actually lost the match.
Real Madrid celebrate the same way when they routinely score late winners. Lighten up my friend 😀
absolute madness. nearly gave me a heart attack.
was hoping to see wenger knock the 4th official out in the tunnel tho.
2nd in the league now.
coyg
I’Im loss of words,..
I’ve got plenty if you want to borrow some? ??
ah no he is too eloquent for your boring and repetitive words 😉
I mean, we defended well and had it all in control when Xhaka had to go and ruin it.
All 3 major decisions from Moss were spot on.
Xakha had a perfect game..Ref ruined it for him… Now every match is a UCL final henceforth.. COYG!
Coquelin
ref was perfect.. dont be childish and always blame the others..
It’s my birthday and all I wanted From Arsenal was a good gift.. I was tensed when Xhaka was sent off then the penalty burnley scored.. Thank goodness we got ours and scored.. I am still tensed but glad we got the maximum point. Thanks for the present Arsenal. Wasn’t the smoothest present but I will take it
happy birthday
Made it hard for ourselves again. A bit if luck but three good points ………Phew!!!!
Arsenal will be the death of me
haha i said the same thing to my sister earlier xD
WENGER will be the death of me.
When will Xhaka learn?? Nearly blew any title chances we have there and then.
Kos was amazing today…we MUST keep him fit.
Finally…need to get Welbeck sharp and able to start…his movement is amazing…shows what we are missing with OG
So disappointed in Xhaka. He was playing well until that point and working well with Ramsey. I just can’t see Coquelin and Ramsey working but thanks to yet another Xhaka brain fart it is where we are. The lad has to sort it out.
On a positive note, lots of fight showed by our back four.
Not sure if anyone noticed but they were niggling us A LOT, and the ref wasn’t punishing it. What Xhaka has to realise, is that the only justice you get on the football pitch comes in the form of GOALS.
A win is a win and I am not complaining. I said it before, there’s no plan, there’s no vision, we play exactly the same way. 4231. Be done with it, everyone knows our game. Ffs, Burnley keeps us 50 minutes on our toes and we have no clear chance. Our game is really flat. Really flat!
What game did you watch, we had plenty of chances but we missed some and Burnley defended really well as well as a special mention to Heaton.
I wonder what game did YOU watch. Heaton wasn’t really troubled, get a grip. This version of backward $hittykaka is getting boring day by day. I am not going on to judge if there was a red or not for Xhaka. If you do that you let yourself to ref’s mercy. He should know better.
Well said Bud, I’m glad to see that there is a cure for delusional-ness ? now give the antidote recipe to your fellow gooners. ?
Thank goodness!!! Xhaka almost ruins it for us, let’s be honest, we were in full control until he randomly decided to be stupid. TERRIBLE ref, missing an easy penalty eariler on and really making the game all about him. I HATE when refs do this. Thank you for never giving up though Arsenal. I went mad when it went 1-1, but players kept pushing and we got the win. HUGE win, well done!
haha …was screaming when they put up 7 mins…but that was best 7 mins of game! ..karma
Thank God for the last minute Pen……..
.
We almost had a Xhakattack!
Wow!!!! Now that’s what champions are made of COYG!!!!! …. We made it hard but showed character in the end. Moss should be sent to the championship alongside dean
We should’ve been 2-0 up well before Xhaka got sent off, Moss is a disaster of a ref and always has been. Dean is still the worst, that man is addicted to being in the headlines and knows exactly what he’s doing. Waiting for FA to address the terrible level of refereeing in this league. If you are not doing your job well, action needs to be taken.
Even though Koscielny was offside from the pass I’ll take that penalty. It’s not every week we win games by offside goals like a certain team. Sometimes you need the luck.
and we were due a penalty from Mustafi being tripped in the box.
Justice lol.
These ugly wins might bring Arsenal to challenge for the title this year. I don’t like the way Arsenal is playing currently, but I’m also grateful that they are still winning, despite the controversies (remember that we had a controversy in the previous match against Burnley as well, in their stadium, this season). Arsenal simply cannot change the way they are playing quickly, because they are under the same manager for more than twenty years. I think if we want a big change, we need to change the leadership next season. For now, we have to accept what we have.
Thanks to the determination of the Arsenal players, especially Sanchez, Giroud, Iwobi, Koscielny, Gabriel, Monreal, Cech and Mustafi, we can still give pressure to Chelsea. Let’s pray for Chelsea to have a draw or lose today!
Thank you Alexis for the 3 priceless points!
I have taken the 3 points.
We are 2nd. Hope we learn from this and fight on.
I will never lose hope until it I’d gone.
Poor Cech. He knew he didn’t stand a chance against that penalty ?
He’s never looked like saving any pen for Arsenal to be fair. Think he should stand still next couple of times.
Exactly. Stand bloody still, and make the opposition at least shoot in the corner.
It was a poorly refereed game, no doubt. Where did the extra 7 minutes come from? I think at the end, the Burnley man should’ve had a red card for dangerous play, whether it was a penalty or not.
I miss the fluidity, pace, dynamism we had when Alexis played centrally. Please make giroud a super sub again.
Great game from the back 4, though a couple unnecessary fouls from Mustafi in potentially dangerous areas.
I also think we looked a better balanced team when Sanchez played on his own through the middle, although unfortunately it means Giroud on subs bench.
Sanchez had 4 shots from inside or just outside the box. How much more centrally can he play. We should cross more. I just watched Ghelsea play Hull the same way as Burnley played us however Chelsea crossed more in the 1st half than we did in the last 3 games.
It’s better to be lucky than good. Crucial 3 points. Only results count.
We have been the luckiest side this season. Imagine the luck we have got were given to city or united they would be miles ahead of us. It’s sad even with these luck we are just competing for top 4. Wenger must be ashamed for pushing a ref , he takes out his incompetence on others. Sad .
I won’t celebrate this win as this just covers our flaws.
haha…you sound like Trump. SAD!
Nice way to debate with people. Call me whatever you want coz truth always hurt. Out of the top 6 sides we have been playing the most dire football. Wenger pushing refs, us gifted goals by the refs is all we have been doing. Sanchez surely would have are his mind with the way he alone is carrying this club.
Wenger needs to leave Arsenal, it’s too frustrating how we play. Thanks Players though for the 3 points
I wonder how much money chelsea paid that ref!
Chelsea’s game that is.
shameful behaviour from wenger today , he should be banned for the rest of the season . he is a thug and a bully and he is setting a bad example to the younger people. this behaviour must not be condoned , regardless of who it is .
I hear people criticizing the manager for what, i really can not agree, i thought arsenal played very well and Burnley did their utmost to stop us from scoring like we expected, there was not many clear cut chances, but chances there were, we just could not find the net.
Some points
Xhaka really was having one of his better games until that rash tackle earned him another red, i was hoping for a yellow, but in all honesty deserved a red card.
Ramsay crosses was awful, but i think his overall play as improved, he was getting in the box and probably would have had a goal if giroud was not in the way
I would have actually pick Giroud to start, so i was not disgruntled, there will be other games sanchez can get the the forward role, there are two reason i wanted giroud physical presence for defensive presence in our box with Burnley being a physical team and in their box to offer that physical presence, i still think arsenal are not playing to his strengths when he plays forward.
i saw some fight in arsenal today, let us hope they continue to improve
czeck can’t save a penalty to save his life
A decent win today fellas but leaving all the excitement is aside. CHELSEA IS NEXT and THEY WANT REVENGE SO THEY WILL BE MORE THAN FIRED UP. Their FA cup tie is winnable with their second squad but ours is a THOUGH cookie at Southampton so even though we got 2 weeks until this decisive match. I do believe we need to play the same team that beat them at the emirates apart from Santi. THE ONLY WAY TO GET AT LEAST A DRAW THERE IS WITH ALEXIS AS CENTRE FORWARD and Welbeck form the GO on the left or Iwobi. Pace is the KEY and If we play OG then we will be very predictable and 3-4-3 Chelsea play is only beaten with a 4-2-3-1 as we did on the 3-0. we have to go for it from the whistle fellas. they are beatable as SPUDS showed and POOL. If we WIN then they have to go to ANFIELD so what do you guys think?
Even though support Xhaka being rash and getting sent off,next time he should really make sure that he got the player injured and probably stretched off the pitch.
It’s just a game you silly man