WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!!

 

Every so often throughout the year, a day comes around where the stars align. We had one such day yesterday. We won money with our football bets, Europe fought off a monumental USA comeback and won the Ryder Cup (sorry, not sorry, USA readers), and of course, the big one. The mighty ARSENAL left it late but dug out a huge comeback win at a stomping ground where we've historically struggled. With the added bonus of today being a bank holiday Monday, we are writing the blog at home, sipping on a nice cup of coffee.
 

We don't need the whole Sanity Spin vs Dissatisfied Debate today. We are bringing nothing but positive vibes. How could we not? When you combine a glorious win with shameless refereeing and the sort of TV coverage that makes you want to throw your coffee cup at the telly, it doesn't get much better.

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​First off, the lineup. As we predicted, Odegaard was on the bench with Eze starting. We thought Ebe might be on the left, but he started in the 10. Trossard seems to have won the manager's trust for the big games and got the start on the left just as he did at home to City, so it was Merino who missed out.

 

The big surprise was no Saliba in the starting eleven due to 'managing his ongoing injury.' Frankly, we found this baffling. If a player of Saliba's calibre is managing minutes, then why on earth would he play the full game at Port Vale? It's like we prioritised that match over this one. An absolute head-scratcher of a decision. Play the young boy Salmon in the Carabo Cup. Who gives a shit about that tournament?

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What about the game? The performance? Utter domination from start to finish, and the performance reflected the match stats. We guess the only question would be whether that would have been replicated with Merino starting the game instead of Eze? Was this a case of Arteta finally 'taking ze handbrake off'? Eze certainly seemed to be instructed to play further forward and is definitely more positive in his thought process and passing.

 

If it wasn't for Nick Pope, the woodwork, and some awful refereeing (we'll get to that), we would have been out of sight in the first half. To go in at the break behind was an affront to football.

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It did look like, for 80 odd minutes, that it was going to be another day where we dominated, outplayed our opponents, and were going to be on the end of another fine margins loss. This group deserves all the credit in the world for not feeling sorry for themselves when it was the easier thing to do and flipping the narrative in their favour with that glorious late, late comeback.

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With an action-filled game, you want to try and not leave anything out when you're doing a review, but there was so much going on that if we forget something or jump around a little from here on in, then cut us a little slack.

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Next up, contentious moments. We'll start with the big one. The penalty or the non-penalty call. Look, we all know it was a penalty. Everyone at the ground knew it, including the guy who mattered, the referee, and he called it a penalty. We cannot honestly remember many games at all, never mind one of ours, where the ref goes and reviews their decision on the pitchside monitor. It happens frequently all over the world except in the Premier League.

 

Shockingly, our Liverpool supporting ref, who has been on 66% of our games so far (he couldn't do the Anfield game), changed his mind to no penalty. Despite it taking an age with no conclusive evidence to the contrary, he decided (not just him, his fellow Liverpool supporting mate was on VAR) that his on-field decision was a clear and obvious error. Even the normally mild-mannered captain for the day, Saka, called it out in his post-match interview.

 

We won't be as polite as Bukayo and will say what he was really thinking. We have to call it for what it is. Blatant, shameless anti-Arsenal flat-out cheating. It was almost IDENTICAL to the Sanchez one for Chelsea vs Man Utd only a week ago. The decision there? The keeper saw red and a penalty was given. PGMOL is not fit for purpose. You could argue has it ever been? Where is the threat of accountability? There is none. That same officiating crew will referee next week like nothing happened.

 

We'll take this moment to also call Sky TV out. ​Their presentation of the game had a Liverpool supporting presenter (Cates), an ex Liverpool and Spud in Redknapp and an ex Geordie and Spud in Les Ferdinand. Could you have picked a worse trio? You were as well having Klopp present it with Shearer and Sheringham as the guests.

 

Where was our representation? Where was our ex-pro? Shockingly enough, their coverage was extremely biased. They focused on three things: the non-penalty, Gabriel should have been sent off for punching, and Gabriel should have been penalised with a penalty for handball.

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We Gooners know that in the last two seasons, Bruno G and Joelinton have elbowed, punched, and thugged their way through matches against us with complete impunity. Should Gabi at the back take a swing at the German Peter Crouch, no, but come on, their defenders were manhandling Gyokeres in the face all day. But that's Viktor not being strong enough, right?

 

Bruno G had a handball that looked just as much of a penalty as Gabis's. How many replays of it did Sky show after the game? You guessed it. ZERO. Cates defended the officials by saying it wasn't VAR that overturned the decision. No, but IT WAS VAR WHO RECOMMENDED HE GO TO THE MONITOR TO REVIEW IT, ie, CHANGE YOUR DECISION. It's the same thing. The same end result. They got involved when they shouldn't have.

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They claimed Gabi was lucky with the penalty for his arms being in an unnatural position. He was slide tackling for fucks sake. You try slide tackling with your arms by your side. Impossible. Plus, it hit legs before hitting his arm. Ridiculous.

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Why is everyone so anti-us? How have we managed to piss so many people off? Refs we get. They are biased, and none of them support us; they are all from the north. TV networks have no excuse. They should have at least one ex-pro in the studio from each team participating. There's no excuse not to. When you don't, you get coverage like yesterday's, which was painful to watch.

 

As for their fans? Wow. We touched on it in our preview. Did we piss on their hush puppies or what? Are they that rabid every home game, or is it reserved for us? Such a weird one-sided hate dynamic. 

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What of individual performances? Who got our man of the match below?

 

Firstly, honorable mentions. No surprise we include Timber again. He was just so, so good. Gordon was invisible apart from his customary diving. JT12 also made two HUGE headed clearances when they were launching kitchen sinks at us after the winner.

 

Next up, you have to mention Gabi at the back. Not so much for his performance but more for his mentality. He flopped down badly, looking for a foul for their goal. It was awful and was 100% not a foul. His head then went, and he stupidly lashed out at Waltemade. But guess who pops up with the vital winner? Mentality monster.

 

Our final shout-out goes to Gyokeres. Slowly but surely, he is building fitness and sharpness. He fought his corner manfully all game with not much help from the officials. It was a display of a proper centre forward. holding the ball up, bringing others into play. You've got to figure the constant runs behind defences, like he made again yesterday, will be rewarded with the service they deserve, and the goals will come.​

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Now for our Man of the Match ....