The governing bodies have turned referees into traffic wardens with all these stupid rules. Players getting sent off for having a shot one second after the whistle is blown and that coloured chap banished to the line for celebrating at Goodison Park a few weeks back. Itâs ridiculous. Richard Keyes was right - the gameâs gone mad. Bring back shirts outside shorts, socks rolled down, managers smoking a cigar on the touchline, terraces and Billy Bremner.
I thought the sending off was disgraceful. There was a mere second between the whistle and the strike. And thereâs a fair argument in my opinion to say he struck it quickly because he was being closed down. Sure, it was off target - you could say it was because he was petulantly kicking the ball away but equally you could say it was on his weaker right foot. Shocking that the referee wouldnât give the player the benefit of the doubt in that instance. But, as others have said, I think the overall outcome didnât in any way hinge on it whatsoever.
He didnt send off Koscielny who was on a yellow or the penalty either which he probbably should have by the laws of the game. Van Persie gets punished for shooting a whole 1 second after a whistle is blown in a 90000 seater stadium full of noise. The ref also didnt book Messi for a blatant handball. :rolleyes:
The handball from the cross? Ah come on. Poor refereeing performance, got the two biggest decisions wrong, but that wasnât wrong.
Joke of a red card alright. The Arsenal defending for Xavis goal was diabolical. Djororou and Diaby falling on their holes.
It is a poor Arsenal side anyway really. Koscielny, Diaby, Song, Bendtner, Chamakh, Rosicky - all average imo
I wouldnât be a huge fan of Song but I thought they missed him a bit tonight. Not because of how good he is, more about the ineptitude of Diaby who was miserable all game I thought.
Song has no idea how to play the holding midfield position. Doubt it would have made too much of a difference tonight. Diaby - need to file him in the same category as Maxi Rodrigues and Jermaine Jenas I think.
It is a failure of Wenger not to sign a proper holding midfielder for some years. They get consistently caught for numbers and the workrate of their forward players including Fabregas is not good enough to compensate when they havent the ball. A De Jong type of player would make a huge difference to their sideâŚ
Just pointing out a decision the ref got wrong. The ref not giving him a yellow could save Messi from a ban further down the line.
that wasnt a âblatantâ handball either shan FFS. Iâm not even sure if it was handball, the angle on th tv replays showed an outstretched arm, but it went off his shoulder, maybe the very top of his arm. to try and say it should have been a yellow card is a ridiculous argument. and ther ewas me thinking you had gotten over Barcas defeat of Utd. think we might have to bring out the barca avatars again for you! :barcasmile: :barcasmile:
shocking inconsistencies between referees.
carragher could have been charged with assault for his challenge on nan, gets a yellow card.
van persie apparently doesnt hear whistle, yeloow card.
should there be a rule that you can be suspended for the next game for the more technical offences like kicking the ball away rather than being ejected from the gameâŚ
Could he?
Diaby was a player I had some time for early in his career, but I fear injuries have set back his development a huge way at this point, and youâd wonder will he ever get a sustained run of fitness at the rate heâs going. The wheels look to be coming off Arsenalâs season, as they do at this time most seasons. Hard to see anyone stopping United cruising to their handiest title in the last 2 decades.
Wenger really is the worst loser out there.
While Van Persieâs sending off was very harsh (I donât even think that the first incident warranted a yellow), Barcelona fully deserved to go through last night, and they didnât even play as well as they could. For him to say that the sending off changed the match he should bear in mind that Van Persie was having an extremely quiet match, their goal had come from a complete fuck up by Busquets and they never had a shot on goal all night. All this against a makeshift back four.
Barcelona also stepped it up when they needed to, directly after the goal, got their two goals and saw the match out. One would feel that they would have done that whether Van Persie was on the pitch on not. Sure he would have provided an outlet and some threat but to suggest that the reason Arsenal are outwas because Van Persie was wrongly sent off is pushing it to say the least.
the worst thing about the game last night, is that all of Arsenals faults are being glossed over because the ref robbed them. It was the same with Chelsea there a couple of season ago when Barca too beat them, and look how they have been since. Utd on Sunday against Liverpool, nothing about how shit they played and how their form has been poor, but all hell over Carragher. Granted there are a few musings on Utds poor midfield and Arsenals lack of big game players, but in general it is all hysteria over how refs have screwed them.
Arsenal were really bad last night. Their defending was woeful, their midfield was terrible and their forward play was completley non existant. for a team that are billed as the English version of Barca, or the side that loves to pass the ball so much, they were completley shown up for the bluffers they are. They have some lovely skilful players in Arshavin, Nasri, etc, but dont have anyone to go out and grab a game and win it for them like most other clubs do. Wilshere is a player who could fit this bill though, impressed with him again last night. Hopefully he keeps progressing the way he is. Could well be taking over from Fabregas next season anyway in that role of central midfield playmaker.
Youâve heard of Alex Ferguson, right? Yknow, the one who wonât do interviews with press after games, the one who prevents his players from doing interviews with press after games? Yknow, the manager of Manchester United? That one farmer, right?
Wenger is every bit as bad.
I would disagree. At least Wenger always speaks to the media, and is actually an interesting listen both before an after games. Ferguson is a bully and as ignorant and as bad a loser as I have ever witness in sports.
Absolutely not. Retrospective suspensions should apply to simulation that wasnât dealt with at the time and violent conduct probably but offences like timewasting are usually done in the context of the state of a particular match so sendings off should happen immediately. Just when itâs more obvious than last night.
Some good points from Gman and Farmer on the myth of Arsenal being exposed somewhat. In fairness to Graeme Souness on Sky he said it too but Tyler and Alan Smith were suggesting that this was a balanced tie with a courageous Arsenal performance being undone by the referee as much as anything. No mention of the penalty that should have been and no mention of the fact that Arsenal were brutal. They offered little resistance other than Almunia and a few risky challenges from their defenders, they abandoned all pretense about playing football and basically mounted a rearguard action from the first minute with a defence that was never likely to succeed at that. It was a cowardly collective effort, particularly in the context of Barca being weakened at the back.
When Arsenalâs team was selected, and going by Wengerâs pre match comments, I was sure that Arsenal would attack. I mean why wouldnât they? We all know the importance of an away goal and given Barcelonaâs frailties at the back, and Arsenalâs supposed attacking flair it seemed the logical thing to do.
I donât necessarily think that they didnât attack but that they werenât good enough to attack. Barcelona owned the ball, even with the average on the ball Mascherano in midfield. I felt Arsenalâs midfield was really bad, and while I think Diaby isnât a bad player, he is not a disciplined central midfielder. They missed Song but to be honest he wouldnât have made much of a difference. Wilshireâs contribution was overstated - he got himself about a bit but hardly ever dominated and Fabregas was awful.
In terms of the flanks I thought Nasri did reasonably well tracking Dani Alves but offered precious little in attack. Rosicky - well his selection was a strange one. An average player.
I thought that the back four did reasonably alright in the first half but the myth of Arsenal being almost on a par with Barcelona as a football team was blown out of the water last night.