So it's only been 2 years since my last Arsenal blog post, 'In Defence of Wenger and Giroud' and it seems I've been banging the same drum ever since on Twitter!
Anyone who follows me knows that I do a lot of defending of Arsenal, the manager and players, certainly more defending than the team manage on the pitch anyway...
I had so much to say about yesterday's game at Stoke that the limitations on tweet size made it difficult to get my points across. So I thought I'd write it all down in a blog post instead.
Firstly, while I accept that on the whole Arsenal performed pretty poorly, it remains a fact that the officials cost us all 3 points more so than we cost ourselves!
Namely a wrong offside call, and 2 penalties not given. If we'd run out 3-1 winners as we should've done if the officials had done their jobs properly, then all the anger and debate about players being played out of position etc etc would not have been an issue.
'But Lacazette's goal WAS offside', we saw the still image!' I hear some of you cry!
Well actually, no... Lacazettes goal was ONSIDE... and here's why;
In the current offside rule, if there's any doubt, the advantage has to be given to the attacking side!
Now I've heard people say the linesman had 'eagle-eyes' to spot Lacazette's boot a few millimetres offside the split second Giroud touched the ball to him, because the still image 'proved' it, but not even an eagle itself could've spotted that! It's impossible to be sure when talking about such fine margins at speed. The still image actually saved the linesmans neck. The goal should've stood because football isn't played in still images... play, freeze, play again...it's played in real time, and in real time Lacazette looked 100% onside, meaning there's very obvious doubt about him being offside, meaning advantage to the attacker!
Now if they brought in video technology for offside decisions then fair enough, the goal would've been disallowed and there could be no arguments. But under the current rules, the goal should've stood!
Ironically, video technology would still have probably won Arsenal the game, despite having that goal disallowed, as if they were used for penalty decisions, we would've been awarded at least 2!
The first half one on Bellerin being the most obvious, he was cleaned out right in front of the ref, but apparently the ref thought he'd 'stumbled' as he didn't book him for diving!
Bellerin should also have had a penalty in the 2nd half, but as he actually tried to save himself from going down, it made the ref think it wasn't a foul!
And we wonder why players go down in the box so easily! The reason is, if they don't go down, they don't get the penalty! End of!
This actually leads me to my next point.
The fact that Arsenal are probably too 'nice' to win the league!
Bellerin shouldn't have tried to stop himself going down. It's not diving, he was fouled, in the box... he was going down from the foul but managed to stop himself..... why??? The ball had gone, there was absolutely no advantage to Arsenal in him staying on his feet! He stopped himself because he's a nice guy! He's being honest, he doesn't think like a ruthless attacker! Winning isn't everything, integrity is!
Now I'm not saying his actions are wrong, far from it, just making the point that most of the team are too nice to win the league! Iwobi did similar in the Community Shield, he was fouled in the box by Luiz, but he kept his feet and ran on. That was more understandable as he had the ball, yesterday Bellerin did not have the ball!
Yesterday, halfway through the 2nd half, a Stoke player rolling about pretending to be injured, Arsenal on the attack.... what does Monreal do?
Kick the ball out of play!!!
That infuriated me. Obviously I knew the Stoke player was play-acting to stop our attack, and he was banking on a nice player to put the ball out.... and up steps nice guy Monreal to do just that!
It's not just Bellerin and Monreal though.... there's nice guys all over the pitch and in the squad!
I love those guys, but if you want to win leagues you need some nasty and some ruthless!
The invincibles had it in spades! Arsenal fans love the reaction of Keown, Parlour and Lauren at Old Trafford against Van Nistlerooy when he missed that last minute penalty... it showed a nastiness and ruthlessness and ultimately a burning desire to win!
I don't see any of that in the current Arsenal side.
Alexis has a little bit in him, Giroud the same.... and Coquelin when he plays too. But that's about it!
I've heard some Arsenal fans say Xhaka is a nasty bastard.... is he heck!!! He's another nice guy!
His red cards have nothing to do with him being a nasty bastard, more to do with the fact he can't tackle!
I just think Arsenal certainly have the talent to win the league, but they don't have the nastiness or ruthlessness required unfortunately. Yesterday confirmed it!
I see Wenger Outs were out in force again. This is always going to happen, especially after a defeat.
He did make some strange decisions. Taking off Kolasinac whilst keeping Bellerin on was one of them, another was removing Lacazette instead of Welbeck. He will have had his reasons for doing so, Wenger hates losing, he wouldn't make a baffling decision just to spite fans, as some think!
It's also not Wengers fault that a great passer such as Xhaka gives away a simple ball, and then runs out of position trying to retrieve the situation, leaving our defence exposed and thus conceding the goal that cost us the game!
Arsenal need to add more steel, height and physical presence to the midfield and the centre of defence. If they can do that, I still think we have a good chance of winning the league, especially if those players have a bit of nastiness about them!
If not, I'm afraid this current, talented squad is just too nice to claim the Title.
Whatever happens, I'm going to support Arsenal football club. We all have opinions, we all get frustrated, especially after days like yesterday, but I love my club! We are going to have some fantastic games this Season.... hopefully starting at Liverpool next week!!
See you in 2 years.... ;)
