How the fuck have they got to that conclusion? That is either a penalty or a goal and somehow they’ve ended up giving a free kick to Arsenal, laughable.
Joe Cole even fucking mentions ‘that’s what Ben white does’ and still comes to the conclusion it’s a foul… despite Ben White not getting fucking penalised for it.
Joe Cole is a horrendous pundit
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Our commentator - “Goalies get a lot of protection, if you nudge a defender like that there is no way a free kick would be given…” completely ignoring the goal chelsea had ruled out last week against Villa for exactly that
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Oh c’mon Coote, that’s stonewall pen on Martinelli. Right, right?
It was pretty evident dating back to the very first game of the season when Wolves were denied the most blatant pen ever, that VAR would not be fit for purpose.
Really is time to move away from it as it’s caused more problems than solved. It’s not only getting big calls wrong every week it’s impacting the judgement of all the refs to make live calls.
All for semi automated offsides, bring it in and let it do the job it needs to without VAR overseeing if there was any incidents in the build up…much like goal line tech was, goal line tech works because it only has 1 job to do and it doesn’t involve any subjectivity.
I’m with Sweden, fuck it off.
I was skeptical that Rice would be worth it for Arsenal. I never doubted his quality, but given that Xaka ended up being one of their better players last season it didn’t feel like a value add worth 100m. If you’re spending that money why not go and buy a Osimhen instead and improve an area where you’re not top class. He’s gone on to possibly be the best signing of the season though, and I think has shown himself to be an even better player than most thought.
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VAR would work if the man heading it up in this country wasn’t equally as incompetent as the officials using it. The referee got all three big decisions in that game wrong on the pitch and still VAR takes more of the blame, baffling to say the least.
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Sums up what I hate most about modern football…
Havertz…
“I felt the contact and went down. For me it’s a penalty. I said to the goalkeeper ‘you touched me’.”
I would love to see these guys play in the Kirkby Sunday League and then say that…
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Can’t wait for Forest to complain about that pen 
It was the other way around. The goalie was at pains to not touch Havertz, and he did his job. Havertz knocked the ball around him, and instead of finishing the chance off - which is what a goalscorer like Ian Wright would call for - Havertz decided to drag his trailing leg over the goalie. Havertz touched the goalie, contact was very much that way around, it was minimal, and he ‘won’ the softest of penalties. To my eyes it is diving, and a form of cheating. He is not mid stride and getting taken out. His leg is in an unnatural position, not lifting up to run, but dragging along the ground to engineer some contact.
In the Champions League game Arsenal tried the same tactic and the ref waved it away, I think it was Saka that time, dangling a leg out to engineer the contact, but the ref wasn’t having it.
For some reason Arsenal are getting under my skin, and I hope they do not win the Prem.
They have pushed the boat out and spent a fortune, I think legitimately, as is their right. It might mean some tighter years to come, but they have positioned themselves to be able to challenge for the foreseeable future, so it is money well spent. They have some lovely players and they pile on the goals and play nice football.
So why is my dislike growing?
I need to think about that, but at the moment two clear reasons come to mind. First, Arteta. He’s a snide, sniveling little shit. He can’t stay in his box, and he is manic on the touchline, almost as if he is playing the game himself. I just cannot for the life of me warm to him, at all.
The second reason for my dislike is related to Arteta, because the team plays in the manager’s image, especially after you have been the manager for a good while. And so Arsenal - for all their good things, which I said above - just go about the game the wrong way. They do too much of the dark arts, and it grates. They dive, many of them. It’s a cultural thing that they are trained to do. They leave their foot in as well. The have a reputation that butter wouldn’t melt, but they are dirty bastards. Partey put Diaz out last season. Saka went through Tsimikas and Klopp this season. Havertz goes in with his studs up on Konate because our man is big, and Havertz also pushes people dangerously in the back, when they are looking up at a high ball. Gabriel grapples Salah more than Ramos did in the CL final. They get away with this stuff all game long.
They have added a set piece coach and all it seems to have done is increase the ways they go about the dark arts, which is to say, cheat. Souness called them out on it a few days ago, as Ben White fouls the goalie on corners, but there’s’ other stuff going on in there that Arsenal are doing to mix it up.
Arteta played at Everton where he was no darling, and then he learned for years alongside Pep Guardiola at Man City. He has taken the dark arts to Arsenal, and generally speaking, the wider public cannot see it.
Arsenal have a good reputation for being a well run club, playing nice football, scoring goals, the lot. But I’m sorry, there’s a whole other side to them under Arteta, and that’s what I can’t stand.
So, I want Man City to win the Prem. I can’t stand them either, but another discredited title won by the 115ers gives me a little hope that it will just go down with all their other titles, in this discredited era of the asterisk.
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That is pretty much all an attacking set piece coach has available to them. There isn’t much improvement to be made by drilling them to execute “little eyebrows at the near post” anymore so it’s all about how they can work together to create blocks to get one player free.
We are finally starting to see people pick up on the tricks they employee and I don’t think we’re too far away from the pendulum turning and all of a sudden refs start looking for any excuse to penalize them. Because as much as they claim otherwise, refs are driven significantly by the narrative they enter the game with.
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Well, these results today are shit. It’s difficult to see any changes in bottom 3 before the end of the season now. Still mathematically possible for Luton, but even winning their last two against West Ham and Fulham (they’ve only won back to back games once this season) might not be enough anymore
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Yeah, relegation is done. From a neutral point of view, it is a real shame that Liverpool made such a bodge job of what could have been a fascinating three-way race.
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Im watching this city game instead of doing stuff I need to do and I dont know why. If city score I’ll be angry. If Wolves help nudge arsenal closer to a title I’ll be angry. Why am I doing this (other than being lazy and not wanting to do that other stuff)?
Weird that “coming together” was deemed a foul for city.
Does anyone know what a “coming together” even is, other than a way to describe a situation in a way that justifies not giving us a foul?
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Your girlfriend must be disappointed 
City winning 3-0 at half time. Why am I watching this?
Haaland leapt like a big Norwegian salmon “. Redknapp’s words, not mine.
Villa contriving to fuck it up. Don’t want Spurs to think they have a chance.