Reckless Xhaka almost cost us the points, again. by Konstantin Mitov
Burnley was an immense drama, AGAIN! And it was an offside goal in the last minute that saved us AGAIN! This time though, we really deserved the win and if we hadn’t gotten it, it would’ve been a real shame. Why? Because we tried to suicide ourselves against a side who scored only their 4th away goal all season against us!
Last summer I and a lot of other people cried out to buy a DM that would play alongside Cazorla and big money was spent on Granit Xhaka, who was quickly labeled as the new Petit. Things haven’t quite ran so good for him though, as his second red, gave us a great scare in a game against a very beatable opposition just like it happened against Swansea.
The discipline of this player is out of control. He first mistook the pass then made a suicide tackle that’s always asking for a card in the middle of the park. Arsene needs to sit down and talk with Granit. Our red card record under Arsene is one of the highest in the league each season, which is something to consider.
I must say the ref was just terrible. We had a 100% penalty against Mustafi, which was very similar to the one Burnley got when Coquelin did what Coquelin does, a reckless tackle. Later on Koscielny, let’s be honest, was offside before Ben Mee stuck a foot in his face, which got us the penalty which Sanchez converted in style to see us win the game and move into second!
The win was hugely important because results elsewhere went pretty much our way with Liverpool losing against Swansea at home, United drew with Stoke, and City and Spurs shared the spoils. Chelsea could’ve had a tougher time against Hull had the ref given a clear penalty when Alonso tripped a Hull player in the box, but hey, it might be that the refs are just terrible or some teams get the better end of it, I don’t know really.
One last thing from the weekend was Arsene shoving the fourth official and being sent off. I can somewhat understand his frustration, the ref was bad, but rumours are he’ll be missing from the bench for a few games. I’m not sure Steve Bould would have too much of a word for the games he’ll be managing. Interesting to see if we’ll make subs before minutes 70 and if we’d opt for a more interesting option like playing 2 strikers up front?
Anyway, the good news is we got the points we just couldn’t afford to miss, and now we can look to Watford and then Chelsea away. The Blues have a little old trip to Anfield to contend with. If we want to catch them up, nothing but 2 wins from the next 2 games will do.
KM