Arsenal’s opponents blame the referee for a change!

Arsene Wenger and Per Mertesacker have already admitted that Arsenal were very lucky to beat Crystal Palace yesterday afternoon. The first bit of luck was when the Gunners were awarded a penalty in the 6th minute, and subsequent slow-motion replays showed that the foul was actually committed otside the box.

Crystal Palace actually had more possession and more shots than Arsenal (and MANY MANY more corners, but The Gunners second bit of good fortune came when our second goal was also judged to be offside after the event. We all know the last bit of luck was when the ball hit Ospina’s post in the last minute.

Palace’s manager Alan Pardew made sure everyone was aware of these refereeing errors after the match. “We took a tactical decision to take the game to Arsenal today,” Pardew told Goal after the game. “The first goal is a mistake by Pape [Souare], he should do better, and yet the call is tough on us because it looks like the incident happened outside the box.

“We find ourselves 1-0 down but we continued with the gameplan and I was pleased with the reaction. It’s probably the best we’ve played since I’ve been manager.

“The second goal is offside and that should be made that call.

“I had more of a problem with the second goal than the first – it’s a minute before half-time and you’ve got to get that call right.

“The one that hits the post and goes into the keeper’s hands just summed our day up really, it wasn’t to be.”

Okay well we all know that those decisions could have gone against us on any given day, but to be fair we have had our fair share of bad decisions ourselves this season. It certainly makes change to hear our opponents complaining!

Tags Palace Pardew referee

40 Comments

  1. it all evens out in the end, the only place we are owed abit of luck with refs- champions league.
    remember that bullsh*t red card for rvp against barcelona- we were on the way to knocking them out.
    the shezza red card vs bayern?
    im not mentioning jens lehmann- still hurts

    1. even with the red card we could have won that game if Betnder wasnt so wastefull with the chance Wilsher created for him.

    2. It doesn’t even out in the end at all and saying this over and over is only preventing refereeing from getting to the standard it should be at.

  2. I expect a lot of West Ham support right now LOL.

    Seriously though, why are the Hammers doing what we should have done there…

      1. No but my 86 year 98lb old mother-in-law could have stayed on her feet with that amount of contact. They should change the law to say any contact at all and the attacker is entitled to go down to force a decision – because that is how every one plays it. The laws of the game are broken imo – getting sick of it. Any everyone is too scared to say what is obvious. Hazard “the most fouled player in Europe” – get a grip everyone; Hazard the “cleverest collapse under any form of contact player” in Europe maybe. Hazard and all his admirers see him as a potential best player in the world but before that happens he has to look and learn something from others like Messi and then take a long hard look at himself in the mirror. Sure Messi ends up in a heap every now and then but the spirit he plays it in and the basic honesty he exhibits is a zillion light years beyond the wit of Hazard. Also why a player like Alexis is so admired – he puts more effort in to staying upright than he does in feigning a foul and trying to con the ref and getting other players in to trouble. Sorry didn’t mean to make this a Hazard rant – but the whole thing just gets to me. I only ever played football at Sunday grassroots level but got physically knocked to ground on only relative rare occasions – something you would remember from match to match as an “event” – not something that has to happen every time an opposing player looks at you.

  3. What a brutal finish from the Hammers, and of course its Alex Song the perpetrator.

    Harry Kane can eat a $!#@

  4. i think soton will lose today, they are 5th atm, too much pressure on them!!! but in the end i would be delighted with this table:
    1 City
    2 Chelsea
    3 Arsenal
    4 Soton
    5 Untd
    6 Liverpool
    7 West Ham
    8 SPUDS HAHA

    1. @AlmiR
      I think Soton are going to run Pool ragged. Koeman knows how to adjust his squad accordingly. And they’re good at keeping their shape for the 90+…

  5. When did Mourinho develop so much love for Wenger and Arsenal?

    “I don’t understand why they are not up there with Chelsea and Manchester City,Arsenal are a team I like very much. They have very good players and Alexis (Sanchez) is a very important player to add to what they have got. They are a team for more.”
    On Arsene Wenger, Mourinho says: “He has a dream job, everyone would love to have the security he has of being manager year after year after year. He won so many titles in a certain period and that gave him that credibility he deserves. He is obviously a fantastic manager. He has a fantastic situation to be successful.
    “When you look at the players in the squad, they are capable of playing very good football.”

    1. why are you not pointing out the thing where he says, they are waiting and waiting and waiting. Its a dig to him, calling that he is in no pressure whatsoever to win anythint and that he has a dream job at Arsenal.

      1. Mo is right to an extent. But honestly, why is he always talking about Wenger and our team? Blame this, complain about that – worry about your own damn Vincible squad.

  6. Off message but refereeing needs a complete overhaul in EPL…they are dodgier than financial regulators .. A multi billion dollar business can surely piggy up for full time officials …. Decisions in ours chelskis and now spuds game were awful … Can’t go on

  7. 3rd looks at lot better than 4th right now, I just hope we keep that to avoid a CL playoff tie. Rather qualify directly than pray for a lucky draw with a weaker team…

    1. All true but……..

      In the modern Wenger era, Arsenal always seems to finish at the lowest point possible to remain eligible for the CL. That is the new Wenger/Arsenal way as the Wenger gods have so determined.

      Only once recently has Arsenal finished 3rd and that was the year that 3rd was the lowest CL qualifying slot because Chelsea had won the CL and were thus awarded one of the CL slots even though they finished 6th. Arsenal still had to go through the early CL qualifying round while Spurs finished 4th and were kicked down to Euro league as a result.

      With Wenger, 4th seems to be almost inevitable.

  8. Luck, Bad refereeing for once on our side, done deal we got the 3 points….. What really concerns me is the latest trend, a terrific first half and the shitt..est second half, clinging on to dear life barely saving the points …might be me, but it seems that we need to manage better, the last 15 minutes are awful to watch as most of our players seem exhausted.

    1. In the end Arsenal hung on to win a tough game. Earlier this season this would have been the type of game in which Arsenal would have broken completely to drop points. It is an improvement.

  9. 1. THE PK: This outside/inside the box thing is quite frustrating.

    If a player is initially contacted outside the box and the foul/contact continues inside the box, the referee may award the PK. He is NOT obligated to call it back.

    Reason: The referee may initially try to play advantage but if then fouling continues inside the box he is not obligated to call it back for the initial foul but may award the PK for the subsequent contact/fouling sequence. Happens all the time.

    2. THE ERRONEOUS OFFSIDE CALLS: On 2 occasions Arsenal were attacking with clean breaks when they were wrongly called offside – thus the promising goal opportunity was killed. Nobody seems to want to claim Arsenal actually deserve MORE goals for these officiating mistakes.

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