Conspiracy Theory 2009-10, Part One, Dean Cheats Arsenal
Aug 29th, 2009 by 'holic
‘Don’t do it, ‘holic. You cannot be rational when you are this wound up.’
The management has seen me upset by football before, but rarely like this. However, isn’t this what being a football fan is all about? If it wasn’t for feelings like this, when you are convinced the world is against you and great wrongs have been done, we wouldn’t take such pleasure from the high points, would we?
I will avoid passing comment on the Sky interviewer who tried desperately to lure Arsene Wenger into a charge after the game when the gaffer was clearly trying to suppress his rage at the complete injustices that had been done to his side by, at best, a hapless official.
Yet for an hour the visiting Gunners had managed to overcome the astonishing performance of Mike Dean to such an extent that even the most purple-nosed Manc would have to concede that their side was second best in every respect.
The tone was set when Valencia avoided reprimand for three fouls early doors, including the use of an elbow. “You watch”, I told the management, “at the first opportunity Dean will book an Arsenal player for his first foul”. Cue Alex Song upending Valencia and the card was duly waved. No excuse, that was pure bias.
When Fletcher went straight through Arshavin in the box was anybody surprised that the most blatant penalty was not awarded by the official from the Wirral who was once suspended for his involvement with a betting company? Thankfully there was nothing he could do to cancel out the magnificent Arshavin strike that earned the visitors a deserved lead just minutes later.
However a further five cards were waved at the visitors, but can you guess which team committed most fouls in the game? You’re ahead of me, aren’t you!
The second-half appeared to be following a similar pattern to the first. Arsenal dominated the early exchanges and van Persie was denied by a fantastic reaction save by Foster, and the crossbar. As a contest it should have been over long before the hour mark, when Rooney, already on his way down, was presented a penalty by Almunia’s careless lunge. In this week, of all weeks, you just knew it would happen. Was he diving? Yes. Was he caught? Yes. No complaints from me, and much praise for the Englishman from the Sky pundits. How ironic. 1-1 against the run of play.
No matter how great the fire of injustice burns within me I cannot put the blame for what proved to be the winner anywhere other than our own doorstep. Diaby and Almunia will look at the video on Monday and if stories of the improved togetherness in the squad are to be believed then they will fight each other to take the blame! Forget it boys, it happens. Just don’t do anything like it again. please.
There remained however one last hurdle for the hapless officials to negotiate before the whistle was blown on the Gunners first defeat. The small matter of an equaliser by van Persie, ruled out for an offside flag against Gallas, who in the modern interpretation of this admittedly flawed law took no part in the play. Inactive or not, who knows these bloody days?
Even then, deep into stoppage time, we had the farce of Arsene Wenger being ordered off for assaulting a Lucozade bottle. What a petty little cheat Dean really is! So many faced punishment today because of his total and utter incompetence.
At least I hope it was only incompetence.
Arsenal will look back on an afternoon when Lady Luck finally bestowed her favours on another. I can’t even say I am wound up by anything United have done today. They did what they had to do, and got a result even they will not be able to believe.
So there, dear. Is that rational enough to hit this ‘publish’ button?
“It really means everything to you, doesn’t it ‘holic?”
I’m a football fan. You’d better believe it.
83 Responses to “Conspiracy Theory 2009-10, Part One, Dean Cheats Arsenal”
Well said! Ive read every story on newsnow about the game and none of them say anything about Rooneys dive.
I was so disgusted with the display of Dean I nearly had to turn off the game. Arsenal dominated the game from beginning to end, and the only consolation that I have on this day is that the only challengers to us for the title this year seems to be chelsea. Come may, I just pray the title hasn’t been determined by the incompetence of mr. Dean
Fully agree with you. The ref was a cheat. No one can be that incompetent. fletcher could have been sent off for two yellow cards, both for persistent fouling. He committed at least 8 fouls in the game. But we have only ourselves to blame. United + ref would still have lost … thats whats hurting me more …
In boxing when you fight away from home the ref and judges can be so biased that it is often said that you have to knock your opponent out to get a draw. First Mike Riley’s gutless display which cost the Invincibles their unbeaten record and now this from Mike Dean. I’d be tempted to think they both had boxing connections, but we weren’t even allowed to draw!
Anybody notice how United got to take their free kicks wherever they wanted, but every time Arsenal strayed by a yard they were blown up?
Hope Diaby is able to put the own goal behind him, he did a lot of good things in the game.
Pretty much spot on except for the offside call ‘Holic. Of course he was involved in the play, he jumped for a header and knocked it down for the ball to be put in the net.
I wish, I wish, I wish he had of been onside, because after Rooney’s fat lazy ass was robbed of the ball in the dying seconds, oh how sweet it would of been to grab the equaliser.
Bah.
ur a twat, im an arseanl fan, but we deserved to be beaten, because our keeper is awful, and against a good defence we run out of ideas, with fabreagas it wouldve been different but that doesnt mean the result wouldve been any different… we are getting harder and harder to respect beacuse we cant see whats in front of us, we need players and thats it… end of
I know S-Hart, but he was onside by then. I did allude to the confusion of the current interpretation of the offside law these days. 😉
To be brutuly honest we would never get a penalty after what happend on Wednesday night.
And I agree Rooney was already on he’s way down expecting contact, Isn’t that considered a dive? and ofcourse Dean as quick as he possibly can points to the spot.
Skysports rates Rooney’s performance as the best on the pitch today, I beg to differ.
Valencia looked like he was punching above he’s weight once again proving my point that he is no where near the quality needed at a top club. Bonkers buy in my opinion.
I also hate the phrase ‘The mark of champions’. That was no champions perfomance, 50% luck and the other 50% being the bias referee being the side of the Home side.
The Vermanator had another solid game, gallas and verm seem to have quickly formed a formidable partnership and niether can be blamed for the goals,
The Mancs must of been relieved but somewhat scared that Arsenal can come to Old trafford and give them a rough game.
Ferguson tried to match our midfield with the 3 but got totally dominated.
All In all the result matters, In the near future the match will only be seen as a United win and nothing else. The media will have a field day about Arsenal tomorrow, Elobaroting the smallest of mistakes which were bound to happen.
Good article again Holic and tell me what you think of my points.
jack, you’re illiterate is what you are. Get a grip son. No, not of that…
Good point John, the two central defenders were outstanding again. Fair play to them. Thanks for that.
I can’t believe the press over this. I only spotted one article that even hinted that Rooney dived. The rest just blame Almunia and say Rooney won a fair penalty. F365 even said that Arsenal were braindead and deserved it. They didn’t even mention the most blatent penalty tackle on Arshavin I have seen for months! I bet MOTD ignore the facts and side with the manc c*nts as normal. Wait and see!
Jack is an manure fan in closet. Don`t give a piss about what he`s sain.
To be honest, whether it’s back luck, moments of madness or poor refereeing, I still remember last year’s champions league semi final and we’re a much, much, much stronger team.
Yes, Rooney’s penalty was a dive. He was on his way down two feet before Almunia’s outstretched arm and it always amazes me how someone as strong as a bull can’t beat off a limp, stray arm.
But the truth is Almunia made it happen … he should have been no where close to Rooney.
Lesson learned. Onwards and upwards!
Just tried to answer some comments on a Man U blog but suprise suprise my post got rejected by the moderator. I guess the don’t like debate when it comes to decisions in their favour.
WOW!!! what heartbreak… dominant and only one goal to show for it.
Referee was insanely shocking!! Rooney did dive! i watched it about 80 times in slowmo (really, maybe even 100, but i thort i wudnt exagerrate!) and he went down very early and as a result of him going down he made contact with Almunia…
never the less, its football and in football the better team does not always win!
One thing that does concern me tho, is RVP!! is he playing well or not? I feel that he does alot of good things on the ball and in the game, but is the true measure of a striker not how many goals he gets? yes, he hit the bar and slotted one in, unfortunately it was offside, but i felt that the rest of the team really did all they can to enable him to put 1 or even 2 at the back of the net, legitamitly!! nHolic do u think that we should be dissappointed in RVP or not?
Fuck this feeling sucks! i gota go face the cape town public tomorrow, CT BTW has an insanely HUGE man untd following! Bleh…
oh and the “peadophile” song! disgusting!! but then again thats the calibre of all untd fans! isnt it??
Yes, Rooney’s penalty was a dive. He was on his way down two feet before Almunia’s outstretched arm and it always amazes me how someone as strong as a bull can’t beat off a limp, stray arm.
I think you summed it up nicely there Joe.
God please give me strength. Why Fair and good are being crashed in this world. What should I be living for? To fight for money and rise about the rule and take advantage of people? Why always the bad guys win out? Why everytime? Don’t you want to set an example to the world how people should live? Or is it a test for myself?
I won’t change. I will continue to live honestly and respect everyone that crosses my path and being humble. God I pray to you, please give me strength.
Indeed the most important thing to remember is that at the end of last season we were torn apart by Mu in the CL and now we outplayed them on the field and that when we had no Cesc, Nasri, Rosicky, Walcott….
So just look at the bright side of things and know we are a much stronger side then a few months back.
The feeling of injustice will make us stronger as a team.
don’t forget eduardo getting booed everytime he touched the ball, or during his warm-up even, the manc crowd were absolutely appalling…they’re celtic fans all of a sudden now??? they seem to have forgotten ronaldo’s antics pretty quickly…
united had nothing on us in this game until that damn penalty, bad decision from almunia, rooney was already on his way down but there was no way the referee wasn’t gonna give a penalty
again, i hope diaby shakes off that own goal because besides that he had another decent game today
im glad this fixture came early in the season so we can get it out of the way…it was always going to be a frustrating game
This game was a farce! Arshasin should have had a penalty while Rooney dived for his. i am gutted, but it is our turn to have the decisions go against us & i feel we should accept this as Celtic were unable to. personally i thought the referee was a disgrace! but did we do enough to win? i don’t think we did. a draw would would have been lucky for Utd & on another day we could have won.
Jack u are a goddamn crackhead! We played a very convincing game today the only reason Utd beat us was because of a dive and an arsenal mistake! My god, Gallas was brilliant and when he is in form like this it inspires Vermaelen and makes him a better player! Plus Arsenal dominated the midfield with some strength in challenges and slick movement!
All i can say is i still think Arsenal are going to get even better!
Gooners for the title!
There is nothing like Rooneys penalty was a dive. There was no penalty as simple as that. If he was not engliish the dognut english press would have been all over him by now. What a shame to be…. This Ovrebo of today is pathetic and he should resign. I think its time Arsenal should make it clear that we have had enough of this myopic and bias refereeing. After reviewing the referees perform Wenger should let the FA and the world know that Arsenal is fed up and ready to fight. I dont think this has anything to do with incompetence, this guy may be involved in betting, believe me. He should resign.
Injustice did bring Jews more together – in concentration camp. I don’t know what to say. We can say all we want among ourselves, but who else would be interested in the argument of a witch? Let’s just say, for example, the chances of us getting a penalty against any team this season is very low.
Thanks for being more reasoned than I could be at the moment.
Well said! I will say it again we wernt lucky before cos we were just too good and didn’t make any costly errors where as today we were again good but made two costly errors – this is when we needed the luck – but we haven’t had luck for years! So why woud we have it today!! If we had scored an early goal in 2nd half like we had done in dec then we would have defintely won this game against the 12 player! We missed Nasri and Fabregas. But Song, Denilson and Diaby were awesome!
We must stand up for our club. If the board and the management can’t protect it, we as fans must stand up and let the f*cking journalists, FIFA, UEFA, FA, Scottish, f*cking Dean, f*cking Platini and every f*cking bustard that dares to pick up on our club know they can’t f*ck up with Arsenal and go away with it. I can’t understand how we let all these scumbags throwing shit on Arsenal and we just accept is as the biggest loosers. We have to start a campaign and make ourselves heard. Otherwise, what happened this week and especially today will become an everyday routine.
Goonerholic, I think you and all Arsenal bloggers should promote a campaign “STOP F*CKING UP WITH ARSENAL”. We are treated as a small club because we behave like a small club. When they slap us on one side we turn the other instead of hitting back.
We have millions of fans all over the world. We have to stand up and be respected. We should not tolerate that anymore!
I hope this is the turning point in the season. I felt like crying when I saw the ManYoo bastards behind Wenger abusing and showing their fists at them.
Arsenal have been cheated and Wenger has been humiliated. This is no way to treat one of the greatest managers in the Premiership – when others , and I neednt even go into names here, have been let away with very little.
If arsenal have the self respect I believe they have they will come out all guns blazing. Watch out you bastards.
Disappointing, but I’ll keep my chin up as we’ve come a long ways. I never though Song, Diaby and Denilson had that in them. Another day we would have won. It’s a long season, we’ve got plenty of games to make up for it.
How can such a well run club, a club that is synominous with class, a club with a team which plays the game exactly how it should be played be so unfairly treated and despised by the press, media, FA and UEFA?
Everything Arsenal does is done in the right and proper manner, yet they do not get protection from any authority. Infact all of them seem to take the side of the opposition.
How many times have you seen Arsenal unfairly punished by a penalty decision against Liverpool or Man Utd or even Birmingham? How many times have you seen Didier Drogba offside or foul an Arsenal defender and go on to score? It feels like the press are erging us to fail and any football body and its referees are actively aiding our rivals and when a decision like that goes against us you can see the players thinking “what’s the point?” its just not a level playing field and doesn’t it happen too often to be coincidence?
After the Italian match fixing scandal, it was said that English football was just as corrupt as Serie A. I think it might be.
BTW: City will get the punishment United deserve.
We don’t have a national voice in the media so the injustice will continue. We are class above – be it – our former players doing punditry – or our board. Like SFA we can’t get media to ban Rooney or the referee. We don’t have the power.
I hope we come back resolute and fight on the pitch!
PS: I think, Van Persie as a captain, did quite well to support Diaby after his own goal. He didn’t let Diaby drop his shoulders. Top Player.
It happens! yes if your playing a shit standard of sunday league not top 4 of the premier who coaches these fucking twats 2 foul throws thats also bollox .
I hate Dean!! I hate him!! I hate him!!! I’ve always done as he has always favoured ManU and Chelsea against us.
I hate him. And if I should see him on any road he will know for sure that I do not like him. A phlem will do from me!
Idiot ref, not-fit-to-be-ref. Hitler in black shirt and shorts.
Is there no one at Arsenal FC who can point to these injustices we see time and time again against Arsenal? What are they doing?
But to be honest, the main reason we lost the game is because we could not CONVERT our chances. This is a serious problem we face. Any game we’ve lost or drew in the past seasons, we always WASTED plenty of great chances to score. ARSENAL NEED AT LEAST ONE MORE CHANCE CONVERTER LIKE ARSHAVIN & EDUARDO SINCE THEY CANNOT DO IT ALONE.
Great article ‘holic.
I feel your pain!
Arsenal must look forward though and impress upon each other the desire not to have to feel like this again this season.
The ‘goal’ at the end was just cruel… but rightly ruled out.
The Wenger bullcrap was farcical.
There was one kick left in the game, get a grip Dean, on such a turn of emotions a mere knocking over of a water bottle has to understood! I know I kicked out towards my stool, you capricious bastard Dean.
Aargh, my anger is overcoming me sorry…
Totally agree with the praise for our defenders. That triangle of Gallas, Vermaelan and Song is the foundation upon which this team can prosper.
Booland,
That is exactly my point. Since we don’t have anyone on the media to stand up and fight for us we as supporters have to do it. Otherwise, we will have the same doze of disappointment after every game.
Look at that:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/8229064.stm
That is what I am talking about. Instead of saying the things that he should say, he accepts the reality and begs for more of the same.
On any other day I would have said this is the best comment ever, but in times like these we need something else. We should sart mass e-mailing all these papers, centrals, FA and so one so they know how many we are and to learn to respect us. They have to shit in their pants when they pronounce the word Arsenal. F*cking bastards…
I think, like Fergie – doesn’t speak to Beeb, Wenger should stop talking to all English Media. Why can’t he just talk to Arsenal Online TV reporter after match and syndicate that to rest of media! We need to stand up against the media rule/power!? Possible?!
Rooney might have dived, but Almunia was stupid to charge the ball and gave the ref no chance. It was nowhere near a one-on-one situation; Rooney was all alone and Almunia should have let the defense deal with it.
Heartbreaking.
I hope this is a slap in the face for all Arsenal players which reminds them playing well is one thing; winning is everything. No end product = no trophies at the end of the season. They should come out with all guns blazing and make a statement v. Man City.
winning is everything
You are so wrong, gt, in my humble opinion. It is magic, but it isn’t everything. I was so proud of our boys for most of today.
Really odd ‘holic, I never felt better about a defeat to united…I know, I know…
I should explain that I watch the matches from the
US and I’m a Yank yeah so I have a different experience of course.
I can’t really explain it but maybe it was because we outplayed them in every single way except the blatant dive, the outrageously biased refereeing, and the ridiculously lackadaisical jump to clear the ball and resulting own goal from diaby, but I walked out of the pub head held high. I’m not really shocked anymore by the truly outlandish bias and xenophobia of the English officiating/media.
No disrespect but when I stayed in N. London (Manor House) all my friends were Irish, Jamaican English and foreign, everyone else from the nieghborhood hated me for being American (and not for being a complete wanker which I am : ). I am 4th generation American, half my ancestry is English as well.
Anyhow I don’t know what it was, but that game finally showed something I’ve rarely seen from an Arsenal/united encounter (baring last campaign)…a gulf in class.
This time it was Arsenal on top, in every way but the scoreline.
If I were a Manu fan from London or Ireland (heh heh) I’d be worried about this season.
The Arsenal will do something special this year, I can feel it.
Us and Them again.
Listened on the radio. Arsenal totally bossed the game despite errors because Man U couldn’t string passes together. Commentators were wondering when Man U players would get booked in the game for committing the same or worse than us.
Seems like an Almunia error for the pen — was it going out or did he have to go for it?
Appalled @ Alan Green’s stance on Eduardo, but not surprised. There’s a job for him on TalkSport.
At least everyone thinks we were the better team and deserved something from the game.
BTW in the pub I watch it in San Fran there are about 1/2 and 1/2 Arsenal/Manu. From America, Ireland, England, Africa etc.
Cheers for the site, I love your old style! heh heh
I am absolutely sick to my stomach! every team hu goes to old trafford has their backs against the wall. its the only place on earth where you can get red carded for a man u player snapping your legs, I mean where is the justice really!!! take their match against spurs at the end of last season for example- spurs were a head 2-0 and where extremely close to putting the game to bed, but guess wot?! carrick(i think) dived in the box and won a penalty and i think you all know what happened next. Exactly the same thing has happened today, but just like the tottenham game no one will say a word on sky sports news or MOTD! it is bullshit! no wonder man u have done the treble!!!!! we should of had a penalty and fletcher should have been sent of for numerous fouls, but instead we got countless yellow cards which were stupid desicions(especially sagnas). btw where the fuck was the ref when valencia elbowed vermaelen and stood on arshavins leg! the bottom line is that we deserved to win that match and would of if we hadnt had a completely biased ref. the only positives i can take from that match is:
1. that we are by far a better team
2. they will pay a heavy price when they come to the emirates and face a fully fit squad with fabregas, nasri, rosicky and walcott back in action they wont know what has hit them
#42 Nothing is more frustrating than not earning even a draw after playing so well. I am proud of the team too, and have great hope. I hope they’ll keep the same intensity when playing against the so-called smaller teams. But nonetheless, we need to maintain the performance and WIN. Hate to say this, but no one talks about sportsmanship at the end of the season.
I agree with George that we are a big club and should behave as such. I am from Iceland and have loved them since i was seven, 1972. We should not dwell too much on today, we were the better team, end of story. I dont know exactly how badly Arsenal are treated in the english media but i know that all over the world men secretly admit how much they enjoy watching Arsenal play. I agree with the man who hailed Persie for supporting Diaby after own goal. I was not pleased with how Gallas blasted Gael Clichy in that awful Birmingham game. I think we are more respected in the rest of Europe than in England due to the fact we dont have many natives. GO GUNNERS.
Also, you know, Rooney didn’t get a yellow card for abusing referee all day where as Sagna got a yellow card for showing a dissent towards the referee when we got an incorrect throw in decision.
Glad we don’t have talksport here in the States. Sounds like they’re helping to wind up a lot of Gooners. What’s new though.
Hopefully this whole thing galvanizes us because we’ve been at each other’s throats for too long now.
There are 14 things I could be mad at today, but it’s just reached the point of absurdity.
Be happy you support the Arsenal, piss on the scum, they will lose to lessor teams this year trust it.
Nail on head ‘holic
Haven’t been this pissed off about a loss since the quarter at Anfield.
We played well except for that little spell in the second half. Despite the mistake, Diaby played well and nearly atoned for the own goal shortly after.
I thought Almunia was at fault for the penalty. In all honesty, it would be a 50/50 call elsewhere but it was in front of the Stretford End and decided by a cunt. The only other person to have a subpar performance was Clichy. Though he bombed forward quite a bit, he made careless passes inside our own penalty area quite a few times.
As a team though, we played better than they did, and it’ll be a while before we forget that image of Arsene in the Man U stands. Anyone have a high resolution pic for that?
And can we get off RvP’s back? I’ve seen ridiculous suggestions on other blogs that he’s useless because of his lack of speed. He’ll score eventually and he’s linking up well with others, contributing defensively and captained the side well today (see Diaby at the restart after the own goal). That free kick was just unlucky.
Obviously sky hasn’t shown the build up to the free kick where the Diaby o.g. was conceded. Can someone please assist me as to what Denilson did wrong because I was quite confident it was just a throw in. the English FA and their bias incompetant refs are disgraceful.
I am absolutely gutted. I feel terrible for having lost the game today.
Yes, the blame for both their goals lies at our doorstep, but the refereeing was ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS.
This … coupled with the ‘Witch Hunt’ thats been happening with Eduardo makes me wonder why we are facing this situation with the media and why refereeing at places like OT and Anfield is so biased.
We really need to stand up and make ourselves heard … and some of the well known bloggers need to lead this initiative. Maybe by starting to boycott some of the biased media sites. I would love to hear other ideas on how we can make ourselves heard.
I really have had as much as I can take of this crap …
It was an absolute disgrace what Wenger had to go through at the end of the match … would the media ever accept it if Purple Face Fergie was put thru the same thing???
Here is the email address to the premier league press office: Write them with your concerns!!
info@premierleague.com
Here’s the link to the sky sports editor
http://www.skysports.com/contactus/0,20299,,00.html
I sent an email expressing my disgust at the abuse hurled at Wenger, the bias of the sending off, the issue of poor poor officiating and the double standard of “one rule for famous English players, and the other set of rules for everyone else.
Back from a week on the end of a fly rod, ‘Holic which had a wonderfully calming effect on me until that was exploded by Her Rileyness when I watched the game on tape.
Arsenal played well overall. I’d like to have seen Eduardo on for Eboue earlier. We missed Cesc. Diaby had a day he’ll never want to remember and Alex, for once, was a bit off Song.
I think we lost the battle today, but there is a very long way to go and on this evidence, Manure, without the gelled tumbler, are a faint shadow of last year’s team, which itself was a bit ordinary.
He who laughs last laughs best.
Terrific post ‘holic. Maybe we should have more of these “just after the match” reports. 😉
One thing that I think may have been missed was that Fletcher’s two-footed lunge and swipe on Arshavin merited. Choices:
(a) a yellow card
(b) a red card (studs up challenge)
(c) praise from the commentators / experts
(d) none of the above.
Correct answer (c). Could you even imagine if Diaby, Gallas, Denilson, or anyone else on our team had done that? But Fletcher, they were still talking about the injustice of missing the CL final. Unreal.
Plus, Fletcher got away with so many fouls on our players and he’s glorified for it? Piss poor refereeing.
But, ‘holic’s right. Whatever the ref’s decisions, we could’ve still won the game and that makes me sick to my stomach.
The plus side is that this “us against the world” mentality will continue. Bring on Moneybag City.
Interesting comments by Richard Willaims of the Guardian in this column
“There was a player who made more than 20 fouls today, but was not given a yellow card,” Wenger said afterwards. Although he refused to identify the man in question, there was little doubt that a fair-haired Scot in a No 24 shirt was the prime suspect. “I got a bit of the ball and a bit of the man,” Fletcher said of his tackle on Arshavin, “but their goal came from that because then I panicked and mis-cleared the ball, so I don’t think they’ve got too much to complain about.”
And when United equalised just before the hour, had Wayne Rooney really been fouled by Manuel Almunia? “A clear penalty,” Sir Alex Ferguson said. But neither he nor the referee would have seen the incident replayed in Sky’s super slo-mo, which showed the forward’s knees buckling before he made contact with the diving goalkeeper’s outstretched arms, the two men converging at top speed.
just a little addition to all the valid comments…..even foul throws were given against us! it goes on in every game every week yet when we are at the mancs they get given againsts us!!!! i know it is petty but another for the anger and bile to rise after a performance that did not deserve that result! Almunia has to stand up and accept responsability for both goals.
http://img255.yfrog.com/img255/3474/1ss.gif
-posted on arseblog
i’ll stop thinking about the game now.
Great write-up ‘holic.
This team has come a long way in the past six months or so and it was a very good performance yesterday. The ‘strange’ refereeing has already been mentioned and yes, Rooney did ‘dive’ but yes, it was a penalty.
I have always thought that Almunia was a decent goalie – not great but OK, however he is now giving me cause for concern because of his nervousness and indecision. Several times recently he has dithered about whether or not to come for a ball or stay on his line, often starting to come and then changing his mind. Yesterday he charged out when he should have stayed and gave away ‘that’ penalty. The defence in front of him is now the best it has been for a long time so he should be less nervous not more nervous, I hope he soon regains his confidence.
I thought Eboue had stopped behaving like a pratt but what was he thinking when he took that pathetic dive, especially this week of all weeks? Also at times he seemed to run out of ideas when he had the ball and ended up just losing possession. I suppose it doesn’t matter too much because if any of Nasri, Cesc, Rosiky or Walcott had been fit he probably wouldn’t have played.
The defence and the midfield both looked good with Vermaelen looking to be an exceptionally good signing. Song and Denilson continue to improve and cement their partnership in midfield and Diaby also has improved a lot in recent weeks and had a solid game apart from the unfortunate OG which was the result of a piss-poor header and more uncertainty from Almunia who didn’t seem to know whether to stick or twist.
I thought the forward line played well but it seems to me that it lacks power and pace and neither Arshavin or RVP are out and out strikers with Arshavin preferring to play slightly deeper and RVP more of a provider/creator than a scorer.
Overall loads more positives than negatives and lots to look forward to in the coming weeks.
Come on the Arsenal!
Cheating Scum!
Baffled Gooner hit it on the head.Since when have the assembled home counties sheep been Celtic fans? Where were they when the step over cheat got Rooney sent off for England? where was their self righteous condemnation of the horse faced diver throughout his period there?
Now egged on by the media Eduardo has been pilloried (quite rightly too) by the media but to add to that retrospective bans are also being mooted. So I take it based on the new trial by media that Shrek will also face a two game ban for going down quicker than one of his geriatric ho’s?
We played with spirit and backbone, kudos to Thomas Vermaelen, William Gallas and Alex song. Denilson needs to have a word with himself. RVP was unlucky with a couple of efforts and Arshavin showed what class he has even though half fit.
So heads up followers of the true path. Suffer the digs from those who crawl out of the woodwork once a month and take solace that we are better than last season and we get to exact vengeance at the Emirates later in the season.
Come on you reds!
I just loved watching the Sky Sports “experts” coming up with the latest ridiculous excuse not to upset the applecart by accusing an England international of diving. This time it was: because Boruc had come out and pulled his arms away, Eduardo is guilty of a dive whereas Almunia had come out with his hands forward. Ergo, a penalty. I’m sorry? Run that past me again….. Funny how tv evidence isn’t focused on when it goes against an entrenched interest.
There then followed a typically sycophantic interview with the aforementioned fat granny shagger since he was man of the match. How the feck did that happen? He hardly had a kick all game. Further, after the own goal, the Man U sports commentary team were praising Giggs for a great free kick delivery. Go figure.
I am sick to the back teeth of this relentlessly fawning, biased coverage. Do yourselves a favour. Unsubscribe from Sky Sports and stop buying papers. You can get all the football you need from the internet in any case and you don’t have to line the pockets of agenda ridden biased news organisations.
i dint want to do this but i have to. finally i have decided tht in order for us to win titles, we need a better keeper than almunia . its tht simple. throw ur minds back to the champions leauge final we were a goal up and eto scored. with ten men the best we cud have done against an in form team was to hold on till it was penalties and wht did almunia do? he let a shot pass thru his legs and we lost. last season in th cl semi’s one goal down to united but there was still some hope tht we cud come back. ronaldo fires a 40yard fee kick and almunia is beaten at his near post then yesterday leading 1 nil and almunia does the unthinkable throws himself at a ball tht rooneys wud have struggled to control and earns them a penalty. these are the major ones. and there r minor ones too. alonso kicks a long ball upfield robbie keane runs onto it. almunia has been told u need to be the sweeper since we r playing a high line, he stays in his post unitl keane fires a shot tht tht he cant save. lehman had his moments but almunia cant clean his boots
Everyone who thinks the Wenger paedophile abuse was vile please email FootballforAll@TheFA.com. This is the FA department set up to deal with abuse and discrimination in English football. I think we should make our point known as this happens every year and is ignored. Thanks
our teams display was great. it’s just the 3rd game of the league. don’t worry. Mike Dean won’t referee every Man Utd game. they will drop points as they did with Burnley. Ronaldo & Tevez are missing and that showed last night. our team’s last night display can beat any Premier League team (Spanish, Italian, German, go on…) at any time. our team will definitely bounce back. the players seem determined. there are still 9 months of football and in my opinion Man Utd will find it very difficult to respond well in the League, Champion’s League & Cups, since the departure of Ronaldo & Tevez.
Hey, just a couple of thoughts on yesterday, Man United barely even penetrated our defence. How does rooney get away with diving every time, he’s quite the expert, did anyone else see how he slid head first to win the ball off bendtner in the last minutes, extremely dangerous play, i just wish bendtner had stomped on that fucking egg head of his.
Rooney is allowed to contest every desicion, even if the ball was no where near him, you can guarantee he will run up and abuse the referee, sagna (fairly in context of the game) expresses his disbelief ata desicion and gets a yellow.
No one questions the penalty, but because rooney is “english” it apperently means hes just passionate. We were not outmuscled, we were not outplayed, we were the better team. Evra, constant fouler, Fletcher apparently man of the match for throwing two feet in every where! As you say when we score an own goal it is “Uniteds great play!” If we get an own goal the other team is unfortunate. If fletcher blazes it over the bar its “a good effort” arshavin misses the post by inches and its “He has to be scoring from there”
Now the media is focusing on wenger apparently “losing his rag”, but inmy opinion, he was just adding to absurditys that were going on at OT yesterday. If mike dean would have referred the CL final last year, United most certainly would have won, they barely got near the goal then either! The league is not won at old trafford, we haveto make sure we are consitent against the Hulls, Boltons,Burnelys, and spank the mancs when they come down to emirates with their dirty brand of football, which for some reason everybody loves!
Spot on, ‘holic. Splendid writing for a 7-year-old 😉
Now I’ll have a strong black coffee please.
Haha, Ollie. Good drinking last night 🙂
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Same old Arsenal, same old Holic, yawn……..
Same old Paulie. If you don’t like it son, why do you come back for more?
Off topic but does AW plan to sign anybody? I am not sure the current staff is strong/big enough to challenge for honour for all fronts. Song is great but he’ll be off to Africa for a month next year. And having Silvestre on the bench give me nightmares.
Absolutely agree with comment 28,
Our supporters need to realize that we have shown weakness in the past when we attack our own players. United are strong because they are united. Did they ever condemning their own players for diving?
We supporter tried to stay in the comfort of higher moral ground and failed to support our manager. What is the different between Wenger actions and SAF actions? Did they ever accuse their manager a liar.
We are now with our back to the wall already. We are now being seen as shame of EPL. People said Eduardo deserve to have his legs broken again because he cheats once. It would be fair to say it would be very hard for us to get a penalty in the next 15-20 games. We can say whatever among ourselves but who else would be interest to listen to the argument the Witch.
We cannot continue to show our weakness or we will be eaten by EPL bully boys. We need to stand up for our club. Because, we all know, UEFA and FA owe us an apology.
There were many positives from this game. We were ahead on all the less important stats bar being one goal short in the `shots on target` column. I thought we outplayed them in the middle, and, best of all, coped very ably with all they threw at us. We scored the only 2 goals in the game that came from from open play, were denied a `cast-iron` penalty, and had to suffer the indignity of an equaliser from at best a debatable penalty, and lost the game to Diaby`s outrageous own goal. Would that he could produce one as good in front of the opposing goal!
This was the match that was meant to prove that Arsenal are all show and no substance when it comes to the crunch games. We should all be confident of a very good season with reasonable luck on the injury front.
Mike Dean ought to be removed from officiating any sport ever again. He’s a disgrace.
That said, we unraveled ourselves last night. I think it was karma for the Eduardo dive. I hope we’re even now.
Feeling quite sick at the way we lost, but you don’t always get what you deserve! We beat ourselves in the end!
I have to say, the only difference between Eduardo and Rooneys penalties is that the Celtic keeper kept his arms in…if Almunia had done the same Rooney would still have gone down as he was on his way already…. all strikers do it anticipating contact and yet Eduardo is being hung out to dry by UEFA! It’s disgusting and i’m proud of Wenger for sticking up for him so vehemently!
All in all, we outplayed United in their own backyard, we shouldn’t dwell on the result, instead we should have confidence to move on and just work harder to cut out the stupid mistakes that cost us this time!
Keep the faith!
alot of positives to be taken from the game.Not manyteams if any go to old trafford and dominate a match and without cesc
I think we need to sign a new keeper. In my opinion Almunia is a good keeper but only good enough for a mid table team, he is clumsy and lets us down in big games. when he came out to challenge rooney like he did it was obvious what would happen. people can blame it all on rooney but at the end of the day it would not have been an issue if Almunia had stayed in his goal.
p.s rooney(wanker) did dive though
Well said holic. I won’t say anymore other than to address those asking why it is that the press and everyone seem to be after us…
…It’s because we do not have an English spine or a number of British stars. Wait until the reserves (lot’s of English) and under 18’s (mostly English) step up to the first team. Only then will we have the respect of the media etc.
For now we’ll just have to win it the hard way 😉
Truly a heart break of a game.
We played well, we created more and we deserved more. But, that is football. It’s amazing, when you look at the start city have made, barely scraping by 1-0 wins and yet when you look at the table they are above us. Despite the fact that we have been better in every respect in all our games. The good to take from this loss, I suppose, would be the drive and desire to correct the loss against City. We might have lost, but so did United and Liverpool and so will Chelsea.
I think what bothered me more about the game then the result, was the treatment of Eduardo. He doesn’t deserve the treatment he is getting. Especially not from Man U fans, considering that Ronaldo is one of the biggest divers in the game. I don’t condone diving in any way shape or form, but why is an offense of any sort always made out to be a 1000 times worse then it should be just because Arsenal player committed it?
Bah, whatever. We have a team strong enough to prove all the critics wrong and they can thrash talk all they want as they print pictures of us lifting the trophy come end of the season.
Mike Dean should be banned from ever being an official in game that Man U play in. Its that simple.
The whole uefa thing is a disgrace. Now I’m not saying he didn’t dive…my personal opinion was that he did. Diving needs to be cut out of the game. But why Eduardo? What about Rooney on Sol Campbell? Why didn’t that go before the FA?
I have been a believer in the anti- Arsenal conspiracy for long time and it isn’t just Man U supporter Dean.
Watch the two gamed of Arsenal vs Liverpool in the Champs league and tell me that rugby tackle by Kuyt isn’t a penalty.
This wont be the end either. Man united are toothless this year unfortunently the refs aint.
Sign petition for eduardo.
http://petitions.tigweb.org/Dontchargeeduardo