Well, that was a feisty, hot mess. Whether it was Havertz’s clumsy sideline tackle, Guimarães’s hot-headed response to that tackle and then the forearm shiver to Jorginho’s head, this one offered plenty of drama. When Joe Willock recovered a ball that had pretty clearly rolled out of bounds and sent in a cross, it felt like VAR would get at least one of three chances correct: the ball out was out of bounds, Gabriel was fouled, or Gordon scored from an offside position. Nope. This was a frustrating loss, to say the least. Well, let’s get down to the poll to rate the lads. We’ll take a deeper dive later…
We can clearly object to that nonsense surrounding the goal, but refs and VAR did little to distinguish themselves throughout. I felt I was watching MMA or WWF, but not football. Pathetic football and pathetic play.
That said, my overall conclusion is that Arsenal will not win the Prem, most probably 4th place – at best. Not much better outlook for the CL – possibly last 16 but probably no further. I saw nothing that could convince me otherwise and too many players that failed in every aspect. Arteta’s honeymoon is over.
Dead right. Can’t help but think how we would have challenged for first had we kept Xhaka. Playing with ten men every time Havertz plays, pushes us back to hoping for 4th at best. Can’t get my head around what Arteta sees in him. His best performance in 17 games was still a 3/10. Without Odegaard carrying him, we were boringly predictable and non creative.
Well you’re a miserable sod hey? Glass half empty kind of guy.Lets just dismiss a PGMOL stitch up as if it never happens to us.only once in a blue moon.lol
A Gary Neville apologist no doubt.
Let’s all take a deep breath and count to 10, yeah? This was indeed a frustrating and disappointing setback, but there’s no need to form a circular firing squad.
We’re just 11 matches in and have just now lost our first match. I agree with palladio when he says we won’t win the Prem, but we always knew that was a long shot from the off. I think we’ll push Man City again, and thinking we’ll finish fourth feels a bit pessimistic.
Those of you who come here frequently know me to be incessantly optimistic. I do still think we’ll see Havertz start to show us that he’s quite a lot better than we’ve seen to this point. He was among our better performers here today and not just because he got three Toon players booked.
We had to know going in that this was going to be one of our toughest fixtures. That it took such a dodgy goal that should have been disallowed for at least one if not all three infractions is significant.
We got jobbed Jon.
We’ll get a ‘letter of apology’ for the pleasure of being screwed.
It’s now officially past time for the UK government to scrutinize PGMOL and place guardrails around the org.
I for one can’t wait for Howard Webb to issue a mealy-mouthed mea culpa. That said, we didn’t do nearly enough in attack to offset the advantage that Attwell and VAR offered to Newcastle. I had hoped for a draw, but I do think that this result will impel us further.