DaveT

I really don't know any more. On the one hand, they've won more points than anyone from losing positions (usually after gifting the opening goal in the most dozy fashion). On the other they've been very fragile for the past month and been severely lacking when the opposition has been very physical eg Atalanta and last night. I hear what you say about reading the room and adapting to the way the referee is officiating (ie giving them everything and us nothing), but there were fouls given last night when there was minimal or even zero contact, including, IIRC, the one against Jones which led to their goal. It's no surprise that all of our bookings were for dissent when our lads had a hissy fit when beyond-soft fouls were awarded against them. Not the right reaction, but not as bad as mine! Fuck knows where we go from here, though.

Is right. The moment the season turned to shit was in the cup game when Nunez played that square ball at 2-3 that led to their equaliser. Confidence shattered at that point and hasn’t recovered since.

Maybe. I think he’s just worn out by having to compete in a rigged game, the continuing awfulness and bias of the officials, getting shafted by the tv companies, the inanity of the media, the relentless bad news - losing Jota and Gakpo on the eve of the derby and having to rely on Nunez and Salah for goals. We now have the shortest turnaround time of any team before our next 12.30 kick off at the weekend. It wears me down, I can’t imagine what it must be like for him.

Gutless and brainless. The referee shaped the match in the first half, should be a steward’s enquiry into his performance.

Nice one. It amazes me how Juergen has kept going with all the adversity constantly thrown at him throughout his managerial career. At Dortmund he was up against a club that regularly nicked his best players off him. Here, he's been up against the oil cheats, and even then, lots of other shit along the way. Divock on fire? - along comes Funes Mori to break his ankle. Sakho - heroic on the Europa run, along comes a dope charge which puts him out of the final, but eventually just disappears (we end up with Kolo Toure in defence). Pandemic comes along - first title in 30 years and we can't even celebrate with the team, Alisson loses his Dad in a drowning accident, Klopp can't get to his Mum's funeral. The Diaz kidnapping! The one season we're relatively unaffected by injuries, we won the fucking thing. Small wonder he needs a break. But what a fantastic 9 years it's been. Will we ever see such a perfect fit between manager and club again?

Harvey’s role in tgdd ex Gravenberch goal shouldn’t be underestimated. Having crossed the ball, he chased back to intercept Iwobi’s pass before laying a nice, albeit straightforward ball to Gravenberch for an assist. I think Leno ‘s save from Gakpo - who had a good game - was better than you give him credit for.

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.