DaveT

Bit of a tough lesson for the lads, they were kicked, pushed, grabbed all game on a pitch that was no better than a local park. Good prep for a cup game away to a league 2 team. At least Bajcetic got 45 minutes.

Yup, complete with clear cut offside not spotted by linesman. Which of course is why VAR was brought into the PL. unfortunately the idiots at PGMOL have made a complete bollocks of it. Championship is deffo way more fun than the PL.

In other news…. Arsenal’s constant good fortune continues with the news that Chelsea’s best player and top scorer Cole Palmer is ill and unavailable tomorrow night. Feels like the stars are aligning for those smarmy fuckers.

Watching Murphy and Jagielka on MOTD2 and Refwatch with Dopey Dermot is hilarious. The whole situation is farcical. I did learn, however, that PGMOL has apparently decided to ‘raise the threshold’ for handballs in the last month or so. When was that announced?! Is anyone officially aware? As for the 3rd Forest penalty shout, there can’t be a better example of ‘clear and obvious’. Taylor said Young got the ball, he clear didn’t…. irrespective of who he supports, Atwell should face some consequences for not calling that out. Oliver and Taylor clearly don’t like being referred to the monitor…. and Webb needs calling out on that situation.

Nice to have a referee who didn’t apply a different set of rules to us and penalise our every challenge. Maybe that’s why he’s only reffed us a couple of times and not the 5 or 6 times the Manc refs have had us.

Agree. Michael Oliver’s failure to give Chelsea a clear penalty- or even a corner from a clear deflection- just adds fuel to the fire.

Neville thinks the Young handball wasn’t a penalty. Not sure what he’s been watching the last 5 years. Knobhead

First freeze frame showed clearly it was onside. Didn’t need more than a glance, but ….

Did they even need to draw the lines?

This team lacks that bit of nous and grit - 2 minutes before half time the attitude should have been to dig in and see the half out… Much less likely to happen with a Milner-type or, dare I say, it a Henderson on the pitch.

Shocker - referee doesn’t fall for outrageous dive

Who is on VAR? Because he should be telling Taylor that Young got the man and not the ball.

So, first penalty denied because of ‘minimal contact’. A bit like the minimal contact by Robbo on Welbeck that time or the minimal contact by Quansah at Palace this season. Oh, wait.. They continue to make up such bullshit to justify dubious - or blatantly wrong - decisions.

How is that not handball? Totally clear cut. Don’t know how much longer I can be bothered with this sport, it’s a farce.

Is there much difference between that and the Anthony Gordon ones recently?

Meanwhile Arsenal’s injury list includes Tomiyasu, Timber and…. no one else.

Part time UAE employer gives biased decision to team owned by UAE shocker. Again. He didn’t even give a corner, just pretended it went straight out. Totally bent.

Agree with this. The season’s been fucked over by the number and length of the injuries. It’s not just the absence of key players, but the build up of fitness and rhythm once they’re back. And the fact that we’re dependent on a small core of players to keep the ship afloat during this time. Mac is the best example of one of that core who is clearly goosed having played 90 minutes SIX times in 19 days. Arsenal, and to an extent City, on the other hand have gotten off extremely lightly in this respect.

Apart from the penalty, the referee has been a cunt all night. There was more danger of us getting a bad injury or two than scoring in that second half, he let them get away with so much crap.

I have zero hope of turning this around- they don’t need to play any differently than they did at Anfield. Any kind of win would at least restore a bit of dignity after last week’s shitshow.

Bernard the Rat’s penalty…. Hilarious

The Grauniad quoting The Esk, whatever next!..... https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/apr/17/everton-on-the-brink-questions-over-clubs-finances-are-more-urgent-than-ever

One last comment…. Whilst he didn’t make any difference to the outcome, -we could still be playing now without scoring, it was one of those games - I thought the ref was a total shithouse. He was mostly even handed, missed a couple of clear fouls for each team. But when palace started the inevitable time wasting and injury feigning, he took the coward’s way out and ignored it. I’ve noticed that the time wasting isn’t so obvious when you’re watching on tv, as the cameras focus on other distractions, but at the ground, it’s so blatant. At one point, Palace were taking an age over substitutions and instead of dealing with it, Kavanagh turned his back and started up a conversation with Virgil. When Ayew came on, his first 2 involvements were to, literally trip himself up, getting Curtis booked, then to flop to the floor winning another free kick for a non-foul. From that free kick, they almost scored…. despite Andersen shoving Virgil to the floor before setting up the Mateta chance. As I say, the referee didn’t particularly affect the result, but definitely added to the intense frustration of the afternoon. (Still can’t believe we didn’t score).

Feels like we’ve been defying gravity for a while and the ridiculous succession of injuries has caught up with us. It’s not just about the likes of Jota, Trent, Mo etc etc missing big chunks of the season. It also limits the amount of sensible rotation you can do. And some players have been over used, especially Mac. The lack of intensity in the first half today and also Thursday night is surely a result of this situation catching up with us. In the past week, Endo has looked like the stop gap bargain but we thought we were getting not the excellent DM he was for several months. Others are clearly still grasping for form and match fitness after layoffs. None of that explains why we can’t score piss easy chances. The harsh truth, as Arsenal are about to find out again, is that you need a near perfect season to beat the oil cheats, hardly any injuries, luck and decisions going your way. Arsenal have had most of that and it probably still won’t be enough. Hope to god this season doesn’t peter out in a whimper, Klopp deserves so much better than that. p.s. Honourable mention to the kids who got us over the line at Wembley and acquired themselves well throughout.

Dead right. Unfortunately that’s how it’s refereed these days (eg Curtis Jones red card). And when it suits them.