Arsenal Caught By Tangled Webb
Dec 21st, 2008 by 'holic
A hard-earned point, or two dropped? Both in all probability. The talking points all surrounded the loss of Cesc Fabregas, the red card dished out to Emmanuel Adebayor by Howard Webb, and the astonishing performance of the ten remaining players thereafter.
I thought the opening half a strange affair which we controlled for long spells, but without looking likely to add to the wonderful goal conjured up by the returning Samir Nasri, and finished magnificently by Robin van Persie with his curiously-named ‘chocolate leg’. The Dutchman caught the eye throughout, and thoroughly deserved yet another man-of-the-match award.
A real sucker punch brought the visitors level. A hoofed clearance (there’s a surprise, eh?) caught Johan Djourou napping and Robbie Keane finished. You know you have defensive problems when he scores against you this season!
Unlike Arsene Wenger I thought Liverpool took control of the second-half and looked likeliest to snatch the lead after the break. The loss of Cesc Fabregas with what looks like a bad knee injury seemed to have knocked the stuffing out of the midfield. Nasri switched to the right, Denilson came into the centre, and Abou Diaby found himself once again in that left-wing role he looks so uncomfortable in.
The turning point came when Emmanuel Adebayor was adjudged to have committed his second foul of the contest. Now interestingly Liverpool midfielder Lucas had finally incurred a finger-wagging from the inconsistent Howard Webb for four first-half fouls. Clearly the message was ‘one more, and you are in the book’. I was pleased that at long last his persistent niggling had been noticed.
Adebayor didn’t enjoy such understanding. Booked for his first challenge in the first-half he was ruled to have fouled Arbeloa in the second and shown a second yellow, followed by the red. Arbeloa’s dramatic plunge to earth (see above) had armed police scrambling to find the sniper in the stands. Replays revealed little contact, but in fairness I think I would have been screaming for a card if the challenge had been perpetrated by a Liverpool player at the other end.
Remarkably though it required another two fouls by Lucas to finally earn the place in Howard Webb’s notebook that had been reserved for it all afternoon. By that time the hapless official had lost all control of a contest for the second time this season. His performance against Manchester United was similarly, shall we say, controversial.
What he did though was to inadvertently inspire the remaining Gunners to produce something that other performances this season have suggested we lack. All of a sudden we had backbone. Song and Denilson took charge of the middle of the park. Nasri, Diaby and van Persie covered hard yards and carried the contest to the superior number. It was inspiring stuff. Doubtless in the coming days there will be those who will query why they have not performed like this before when required.
Come the final whistle there was a mixture of elation at the performance of the ten and fury at the bumbling officials. Arsene got it wrong when he said we were on top in the second-half and would have won with eleven men. He got it wrong when he said Keane deserved the same punishment as Ade for his clumsy early challenge which left Clichy hobbling for the remainder of the contest. He got the Lucas contribution to Howard Webb’s nightmare showing bang on though.
The final word though is surely one of concern for the skipper. I have to say in one way what looks like being a month or two on the sidelines will enable him to recharge his batteries. Regular readers will know I am not sorry he now has that opportunity. It does however add to the overwhelming need for Arsene to dust off the cheque book in January. Thirty minutes of gut-busting effort and application should not have persuaded him that what remains behind Fabregas in the pecking order is ready to pick up the baton. Perhaps they will start to prove us all wrong at Villa Park on Boxing Day?
26 Responses to “Arsenal Caught By Tangled Webb”
Ive tried to contact the FA but somewhat suspiciously they tell you to register for a ‘FAN’ number, and then when i clicked the link to do that it says ‘page not found’.
A joke site
A joke association
A joke referee of theirs in Howard Webb
Liverpool supporting cunt
Howard webb is a ****** piece of shit! Those were awful calls against Ade and undeservedly got booked twice for bullshit! I’m really angred at this, how can a referee be that bad at his job? If he was held up to the same standards as the players on the field, he wouldn’t have a job. And quite rightly shouldn’t; I hope Wenger appeals the decision so Ade can play next week. If FA is just and true they will overturn the decision and allow Emmanuel the reprieve.
Bullshit best referee in the premiership fuckin’ cunt is what he is! And all the persistant fouls by their damn spaniard dipshit Lucas was rediculous. Guy had 10 fouls in the first half and no damn card-no NOT A ONE!! Webb should lose his job for this, yes I am calling for the man’s job b/c I’m sick and fuckin tired of our players being screwed at every DAMN turn! And he is not a premiership quality referee…my 3 year old niece has more common fucking sense that this bastard AHHHHH. So PISSED!
And Cesc being out for the next 2-3 weeks…HOW FUCKING CRUEL! Everyone hates the Arsenal….but I will love this club til’ the day I die…gooner4lyf
I agree with what you say about Lucas (he is Brazillian by the way). After watching the replays of Ade’s tackles I can see why he was sent off as both were over the top of the ball. They may not have been as bad as some over the top tackles but Webb will always give a yellow card for them. Denilson and Song were immense after that, as was RVP.
Still see no need for video refereeing? I doubt Webb was being bribed by the Scousers – even if it looked like that. But clearly refs can’t see what 200,000,000 viewers can see round the world.
The technology’s there. Unfortunately the idiots who choose not to use it are also there.
I think we can be careful about comparing the officials’ performance to that of the players’. Everybody has bad days. I’m convinced that Webb is unlucky to have had two poor performances while officiating us this season because by and large I think he probably is our best referee. Certainly he lacks the ‘ego’ that is displayed by many of his colleagues.
str8goon, I had to ‘edit’ one word you used about him. I know why you used that word and at one stage, while still angry straight after the final whistle, the same thought crossed my mind. It’s not right though, I’m sure.
Perhaps we should be more concerned about where those battling midfielders came from in the last twenty minutes?
Quote “I’m convinced that Webb is unlucky to have had two poor performances while officiating us this season”
What have you been smoking. Webb has been screwing with us for years. His s**t refereeing performances against us started long before this season and have happend in a lot more games than the two this season. He’s a disgrace and as for that ego comment watch him in the tunnel before the match and you will soon see he has a massive ego which follows him onto the pitch.
fuck he was the lino who got cambell sent of v utd in 03,he then missed the fa cup final so he has been screwing us before he was even a ref!!!!
Fuck Coward Webb
AFC = Always Fucking Cheated
diaby was poor and only came on instead of eboue because of the boo boys that may have welcombed eboue.
diaby lost pretty much every ball, and nasri had to play on the right where he was quieter.
but for that we can blame our boo boys, we may have won (with the 10men) with a midfield of nasri, song, denilson, eboue. but we had diaby, song, denilson, nasri which had no balance.
Victoria Concordia Crescit
(which, for the boo boys that dont know means victory in harmony)
(fans were good today, I look forward to it again next time one of the big for come into town or the roma game, but thats still not enough)
Well done to the Arsenal fans today, they got behind the boys and made up for the missing man by putting liverpool off their game
I think I might just take exception, holic.
I think we’ll see Denilson rise to the challenge and pick up the baton for you in Cesc’s absence. He’s been ever present this season and his game comes on by the week (except when he’s asked to lay outside right, but I guess that’s just part of AW’s “growing” treatment). A super driving game in mid-field today with his much maligned sparring partner, Alex Song. Over 90 minutes, these two were the best mid-fielders on show for me today. If Alonso’s worth $18M, how much for Denilson?
Got to disagree with you too about their goal and JD20. Djourou had a great game, commanding a lot of cool, calm, control. His arrival is bringing Gallas on a bit. Pity WG will be leaving soon for Italy. I’d try Song beside JD when Willie goes. Time to buld the defence around Djourou and hope he can cool off some of the sloppy errors creeping in to Clichy and Sagna’s games.
Eboue, Denilson, Song, Nasri for me in mid-field versus Villa. I’d like to see a Vela – Van Persie strike force but I expect that i Bendy’s fit, he’ll start?
Great game by the team, great game by the fans, great game by Denilson, absolute shocker by Howard Bloody Webb.
Having said all of the above, there’s no doubt in my mind that AW will buy. Who’s good enough though? Pato, Xavi, Ireland?
Just to get serious for a minute, if we’re complaining about the officials, we weren’t good enough to win the game. Again we score one and fail to score a second to put the game under control. It happened against Middlesbrough and Wigan, etc.
As soon as we concede our heads drop. It certainly looked like once they scored (regardless of Cesc’s unfortunate injury) we weren’t going to see much of the ball.
Even if Ade didn’t deserved to be sent off, WHAT THE HELL was he doing tacking like an idiot and ASKING to be sent off for???
This side still needs an enforcer. Song is getting there, slowly, as I’ve predicted for some time. But he can’t do it yet, and not on his own. Oh how we’ve needed Gilberto. We wouldn’t concede so many goals as we do.
We’re in serious danger on Friday.
I’ll accept your praise of Denilson, BtM. I think he has been harshly treated for his performances in the centre this season. He clearly isn’t a right winger though. I think you also have a point about pushing Song back alongside Djourou. We have worse options and Alex ain’t a midfielder the way Arsenal play the game, that much is clear. The nature of any January signings may be affected by the Fabregas injury. If it is a bad one we don’t need another untried but highly rated teenager. We will need proven ability and experience.
The Arsenal crowd were fantastic in the second half; Really lifted up the team and became their 11th man against Liverpool’s 12. Arsenal showed alot of determination in that half, and the refereeing was absolutely apalling.
Never.Again. Should he referee us, I mean it, he’s probably a ‘pool fan. Or even worse, a spurs fan, or something, but this has to stop.
Just back from the game `holic and have not seen Ade`s two yellows again but they seemed very harsh.
Howard Webb seems to have a strange idea about consistency.He deals very harshly with Ade but lets Lucas carry on fouling with no action.I think he comitted four fouls in the first ten minutes.
He must be a fan of Stephen Gerard who quite blatantly dived and quite blatantly told him to fuck off.He took no action.
You could not fault anybody for effort.Denilson looks better in the middle and Song had probably his best game for the club.
If you think Webb was bad cast your mind back to Graham Poll in the 3-1 defeat to Newcastle in 2001.
Unfortunatly crap refs are a fact of life we`ve just got to live with it.
Norman Burtenshaw,Clive Thomas,Roger Milford,Steve Dunn they are the stuff of nightmares.
Double Remy please `holic or I wont sleep.
Best to you and yours.
Rocky7, I think you’re being a bit harsh on the team mate, it’s not easy to score against a top four team, let alone 2 in one half (although it was a soft goal to concede).
I’ve always liked Denilson although I still think we need a new CM because Diaby doesn’t play in the centre and that leaves us with just three CMs (and Ramsey), and I’m not particularly convinced by Song in midfield, even though he played well today. I prefer him as a centre back because he takes too much time in midfield and isn’t very mobile, and his passing/technique aren’t really up to scratch for an Arsenal midfielder IMO.
1-1 was a fair result. It confirmed what 95% of fans have known since the transfer window closed on September 1st: Arsenal are not good enough to win the league without serious spending in January.
I think the result was a fair reflection on a game where neither side created many clear cut chances. Liverpool came with the intention of getting a point. We were poor at the back for their goal and we need to be better. Keane is not blessed with great pace. If we play like that agianst Young and Agbonlahor then we could have real problems.
The sending off was a pure joke. When I look back over the season at the players we have lost through injury due to poor and cowardly tackles it just makes my blood boil. having seen the first booking again, it is quite clear that Webb could not even see the challenge. A total arse.
I have championed Denilson before and thought he was outstanding today. The one thing that has impressed me about him is that he keeps improving. Those who mock him need to realise that this is his first full season. I honestly believe that he can become a great at the Arsenal. As others have said, RVP also deserves a mention. His finish was pure class.
Our spirit was fantastic although I am a tad concerned about the lack of chances we are creating at the moment. On to Villa Park. Be nice to get all 3 points up there.
I have no problems with how we played, we started brightly and played the full game with tenacity and energy. Basically the game went pretty much to script: we showed up against a top side, we scored, we made small oopsie, they scored, dropped heads, they almost score again, and webb is an afc fan’s nightmare.
As for individuals, all our players played well, the ref on the other hand was awful, a real tool. But I will say, eventhough he had a very good game otherwise, Djourou should not have let the ball bounce and keane ran onto it, aside from that mistake Djourou was solid. Song and Deni also showed signs of growing maturity. BUT, this squad is not there in terms of title talk and won’t be until the right players are brought in and balance restored. Squad depth is a real problem now with cesc out, wenger who likes to think REAL REAL LONG TERM might have food for thought given how much differently the team played without cesc in the second half, very flat.
“I’m convinced that Webb is unlucky to have had two poor performances while officiating us this season because by and large I think he probably is our best referees.”
Sorry ‘holic but is this the same Howard Webb who turned in a truly disgraceful performance throughout the CC final in Cardiff in 2007, culminating in his apparent view that Adebayor and Eboue looked alike when sending off the former?
Did he view today as an opportunity to prove that he can tell them apart? Not too difficult as Eboue didn’t appear ‘til the 90th minute!
And, as “ac” points out there was the “Campbell incident”.
Is Webb a racist? Who knows: but it’s fair to say that 3 black players were sent off that day, yet Cesc and Fatboy stayed on despite behaving as badly as anyone else.
Is he a liar and a cheat? In my opinion, yes. How else can one view his refusal to admit that he was wrong in the aftermath of Cardiff and the general bias he displays week in week out?
Overall he’s been, er, for want of a better phrase, utter shite.
Contrary to your view, Webb for me is the worst of a very, very poor bunch and hopefully after that performance, ala Poll, it will be a couple of years (or preferably the 12th of Never) before he pollutes The Grove again.
Webb aside, credit to the 10 men (and to the initial 11). Bottom line though is that, although we won’t go down, we simply aren’t as good as we think we should/could be.
Time for the chequebook AW . . . .
More important though: all the best to Mrs ‘h: is she home yet/on the road to recovery? Both, I hope. . . . .
Initially I was very angry with Webb for his poor refererring. But i think he did us a favour with that “sending”off. Definitely,not a yellow card offense. But, with Fabergas off with an injury, we were really in danger of loosing, until the sending off. Then,the palyers woke up to the fight and the crowd was terific. Their persistent booing seemed to put Liverpool off. I thought Song grew in stature and won the midfield battle.
The next game will be crucial. typically our players attitude is that if they can take on the big boys, comes a lesser team and they think is a walk in the park. over confidence???? maybe. More to inexperienced in my opinion.
I thought that Webb was dire. All the points above would probably be accurate. Lucas gets away with fouling persistently and Ade is sent off for two challenges. The first one was really harsh as was the second, but I can excuse Webb for the second because Ade looked like he either went over the top of the ball or elbowed the guy in the face.
I thought that Diaby was absolutely terrible today. He would get the ball and you knew that it was only a matter of a couple of touches before he either misplaced a pass or lost possession. I don’t see the point of persevering with him and would sell him if I were Wenger. He is too lazy with tracking back and ok, he isn’t a left midfielder, but if he went into the centre, he’d do the same and wouldn’t track back.
Song and Denilson were excellent today. Song actually was all over the pitch and both were giving it hard in the tackle. Hopefully they can keep this up because I would love to continue to see this high octane midfield. I’d give a shout to Nasri today as he was also excellent – He’s my man of the match because of his assist and ball retention when having 2-3 men on him. Excellent work!
Keane’s tackle on Clichy, which they didn’t replay much, showed him with both feet off the ground and going in with his studs. If Ade deserved two yellows, Keane’s was a straight red. I agree with with what Wenger said.
I saw West Ham against Villa and Bellamy was constantly getting in behind the defenders and creating a lot of problems. I’d be tempted to play Vela with RvP. I feel though that Wenger may go for a 4-5-1 with RvP up top, Diaby behind him and Eboue on the right.
Re. Cesc, pray, light candles, make small animal sacrifices or whatever–hope he’s back soon. Bad luck that injury.
Our 10 men were excellent for the last half hour, fighting for every ball and bringing the game to Liverpool. No doubt they were fuelled by a sense of injustice, but if only they gave us that level of passion, commitment and effort every week!
Still, another ‘must win’ game slips away. We have absolutely got to win at VP Boxing Day.
I must acknowledge the tremendous efforts made by our players after the sending off. Denilson and Song were magnificent as was RVP and every other player worked his socks off which is all I have been wanting to see all season long. I can accept losing to a better team on the day or having a bit of bad luck but some of the performances this season have been weak and wishey washey. If the players can show this level of effort, energy and commitment each and every game then I have no fears for the future. Keane’s goal was well taken but was down to a defensive error, JD was poorly positioned but why was Gallas so far away from him? Gallas was the most experienced player on the pitch and should have known better, I’ve always understood that it is important for central defensive partners to stay close together so why was he away on the other side of the pitch? I am not sure about a Song/Djourour centre back partnership because Song is basically a DM player and as partnership, positioning and reading the game is so important with central defence I don’t think we can allow them the luxury of the learning curve that will be required. Our best hope is that Gallas stays and that partnership continues to develop. Congrats also to the fans who got unreservedly behind the players, long may it continue.
Webb’s incompetence was shocking. That Liverpool were the beneficiaries was not – when don’t these twats get the calls?!!
Our squad really played an inspired final 30mins. And I am of the opinion that we were playing with nine not ten. Diaby was incredibly inept. His indecision and lack of hustle was glaring.
Something for all to note is that Arsene did not bring on other players to grind out the last 30mins. No fresh legs were brought on until Eboue. What does this tell us of the state of the club when the opposition with 11 on the field used all their substitutions? If Eboue deserved being pulled several weeks ago because he was becoming a “danger” …why leave in Diaby? Also, if he has so much faith in our youth, why leave Vela, Ramsey and Jacky Boy sitting on the bench? January can’t get here soon enough. I’m just hoping that Villa & Hull don’t end our title run before then. Come on Gunners