When the referee Martin Atkinson booked the Arsenal holding midfielder Francis Coquelin for a foul that was not as bad as the one he had not booked the Leicester DM Danny Drinkwater for earlier in the game, I started to worry that the officials would have another negative effect on one of our matches and less than 10 minutes later Atkinson proved me right.
Missing that blatant foul by Wes Morgan on Ozil was bad enough as it would have given Arsenal a free kick in a great position on the edge of the box just before half time was bad enough, but for him to compound the error by buying the dive by Vardy and giving the Foxes a penalty was nothing short of criminal.
Maybe the fact that we have lost five of the last seven games that Atkinson was in charge of is no coincidence. It was so harsh on the Gunners though, as we had started the game really well and created good chances, while defending their counter attacks pretty well.
It was not quite running for us and every rebound seemed to favour the visitors, while Cech had to make a great save from a Vardy header which was the clearest chance of the first half but I think we deserved to be level at the break at the very least.
Maybe someone told Atkinson during the break that he had messed up, because not long after the restart he finally gave Simpson a card and soon after he showed him another, leaving Leicester with over half an hour to play with 10 men. Luckily we made good use of that time to get the points, although it was well into Fergie-time before Danny Webeck secured the points.
But if Atkinson had been fairer from the start it would have been much less nerve-wracking for us Gooners!
Vardy cheated and got beaten..
New Vardy Tweet:
Cheat Sh** get banged
Even when we win we still blame the ref. It had to be harder for Leicester with 10 so stop Winging and remember Arsenal have a goal difference that is the worst of the top 5. That’s our problem not Ref. Now with Welbeck back and hope against Hull with Walcott Campbell In as well it should be over at half time and then the first eleven will be so hard to pick. Love it. CB
Yes we can blame the Referee. But the real cause of concern is the ability of our players to finish. It is really pathetic to see how the likes of Ramsey and Sanchez are missing glorious opportunities. Its real unfortunate that spurs are scoring more goals than us.
This win gives us the chance to be in the PL, but we have 5 tough away matches out of remaining 12.
United, Spurs, West Ham, Everton and Man City.
Our strikers has to be more clinical. We have to produce better performance in those matches. If we loose at United we could be gain 5 points behind Leicester.
So its up to our strikers to kill the finish moves.
On another note I am concerned about the injury of Koschielmy and Gabrial .
We also have loaned out Debutch . Any news?
koz : dead leg. he’ll be ok.
gabriel, i heard hamstring; might be few wks.
I think it’s high time they started making more use of camera technology for decisions like yesterdays penalty. How many bad decisions made on the spot have ruined a game? All it takes is for the ref to stop play, refer to a third party and make a calculated decision based on the their feedback. After watching the penalty replay twice (roughly 30 secs NOT LONG) it was clear Vardy made a meal of it by dragging his left leg and running into a different direction to where the ball was actually going. It’s not only unfair, but mentally in a game like yesterday being one nil down just before half time was a major mental blow for Arsenal.
BIG UPS to the lads for coming back and scoring two in the second half.
And look at clattenburg gifting Spurs a penalty and a goal
But I just like the way we won by the last kick. Knowing who we are, not a defensive team, it’s better we beat some tough teams by the last kick. Going down early can force some teams to up their game.
Next match? We are not afraid of Man U again. They are the one that would be scared, after all Welbeck is back for them. Push on boys but remember that GD counts and not head-to-head.
Now that we have almost won Wenger cup, can Wenger lift the bar?
Jst happy we won, dats all dat mata
Big ups for our bench for turning up so well. Having a bench that can directly change the the game is a sign of good quality and depth..something thats characteristic of champions. I was particularly impressed by Callum, i think he handled his battles quite well. The boy has great future!
I agree that the ref was poor and the calls in the first half were completely one-sided. He did, however, level that out in the second half.
I feel really lucky Arsenal won the game. It was not a good performance.
I was so happy we won….buh then I saw a comment on skysports by a neutral fan and he said this win just allows Arsenal to dream on,that we will still fall short starting from ManU…I got so scared at that thought..honestly, this win would be useless if we don’t beat ManU..
We have made all our games a must win now.so we have to work harder…May God help us
Admin, you can’t argued at Leister penalty. Vardy wasn’t try to pass Monreal, he rammed at Monreal legs on purpose. However, it was a contact.
My complained to Atkinson was at our penalty claimed. We should get it twice, at less.