In Arsenal’s third match of the Premier League season the Gunners will be Saturday lunchtime hosts to the seabirds of Brighton and Hove Albion. Both clubs took six points and a +4 goal difference from their first two matches, as did Liverpool, but all three clubs trail C115y whose goal difference is marginally better at +5. Tomorrow’s match will be the Gunners’ first outing against any opponent not from Birmingham or vicinity after they whitewashed Wolves and vanquished Villa.
The game is likely to have a reasonably relaxed early season atmosphere, but it will be important to subdue Brighton to maintain the excellent momentum we built in those two clean sheet victories, and because it is Arsenal’s last before the international break which covers the entire first half of next month until we resume with away games at Sp**s and C115y on 15 and 22 September, either side of Champions League match day one in midweek against one of eight possible opponents drawn on Thursday, and Bolton Wanderers at home in Carabao Cup third round action three or four days after we face C115y.
The Champions League draw saw Arsenal grouped with eight other clubs (Inter Milan, PSG, Atalanta, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb, Sporting Lisbon, Monaco and Girona) in the reformatted competition. The order of those matches, dates and kick-off times will not be announced until Saturday but Arsenal will host PSG, Shakhtar, Zagreb and Monaco and travel to face the other four clubs.
Brighton
Seagulls’ new manager, Fabian Hürzeler, at 31 years and 6 months is the youngest permanent boss in Premier League history, and last season coached St. Pauli to promotion to the German Bundesliga before Brighton grabbed him. Hürzeler’s new charges include a flock of promising youngsters but veterans Dunk, Welbeck and Milner (and one or two others) all have an age (dis)advantage over their manager. Hürzeler was appointed at St. Pauli only 20 months ago with the club in the lower reaches of the German second tier, and coached them to a fifth place finish in his first half-season before getting them promoted to the Bundesliga in May. His moment in the sun with St. Pauli notwithstanding, Hürzeler’s is in his first elite-level management job.
Brighton’s performances under previous boss Roberto de Zerbi, who left to take charge at Marseille in June, were increasingly inconsistent as the 2023/24 season progressed. Their league form, after a strong start of five wins in their first six games, was decimated by injuries. By December ten players were unavailable, including forwards Mitoma, Adingra, March, and Enciso; and defenders Estupiñan, Lamptey, Webster and Veltman. De Zerbi was frustrated by the club’s inactivity in the January window when the club failed to add any midfielders after the club signed midfielders Baleba and James Milner as stopgap replacements for Mac Allister and Caicedo who were sold to Chelsea for big money two summers ago. Brighton’s attacking frailties last season saw them become the draw specialists of the Premier League with two more than any other team. A significant part of their difficulties arose from an inability to score from set pieces: Only four clubs scored fewer than Brighton’s eight goals via free kicks and corners last season.
On the first day of this season Brighton won 3-0 at Everton with goals from Mitoma, Welbeck and Adingra. One match report said the most impressive feature of Hürzeler’s new system was “the directness of his wingers, who by stretching the game created all three goals.” New signing Minteh crossed for Mitoma to score the opener, before Welbeck scored the second thanks to his wingers making distracting runs on either side. In the second half Adingra, on for the injured Minteh, attacked from the right to score the Seagulls’ third.
Brighton team news ahead of last Saturday’s 2-1 home win against Manchester United featured the possible debut of their club-record signing22-year-old French forward Rutter. Brighton were expected to be without March and Enciso, while Lamptey, Ferguson, and Estupiñán had all returned to training and were assessed ahead of kickoff. Brighton’s starting team against United was: Steele, Hinshelwood, Dunk, van Hecke, Veltman, Gilmour, Milner, Mitoma, João Pedro, Minteh, and Welbeck. After an even first half hour Brighton stroked it around the Manc area before Minteh on one side pinged it to Mitoma on the other, and he slipped it to the sliding Welbeck who tapped it home as the Manc defence stood idly by for a 1-0 Seagulls lead. Welbeck and Milner were among Brighton’s brightest lights for the opening hour as they lulled the young Mancs to sleep long enough to allow for some fresh legs to finish off the visitors.
It was fairly standard stuff from the Seagulls rather than their cutting edge approach under De Zerbi, but it was enough to put them ahead. Milner volleyed over the bar shortly after the second half resumed when more passivity in the passive United defence gave him a chance at the top of the area, and Milner nearly scored again after being put through by Joao Pedro. Welbeck then headed a Minteh cross at the keeper as only the Seagulls were creating chances, but soon after United countered and scored the equalizer through a deflected right wing cross. Enciso replaced Welbeck with 12 minutes left to play, as Joao Pedro moved into a more advanced position. Alongside fellow substitutes Adingra and Ayari, record signing Rutter made his debut replacing Mitoma as added time loomed. Enciso shot just over from distance on 93 minutes after Brighton’s substitutes provided a fresh burst of attacking energy, before Adingra centered for Joao Pedro to head home for a 2-1 winner scored in the 95th minute.
Arsenal XI
Gabriel Martinelli having been criticised after the Villa game for not creating chances out of nothing, which a couple of seasons ago he seemed to do habitually, we might expect Trossard, last week’s goal scoring hero with his first touch in his first minute on the pitch, to start in the Brazilian’s place on the left wing. Other than that one possible change, I think it is unlikely that Arteta will tinker with the team he identified as the one he wanted to start the season with, and which has been effective in garnering all six points on offer to date. If further changes were considered, Jorginho hasn’t started yet this season and could come on for Thomas in midfield, as might Calafiori for Timber, but the team is still defining itself at this early stage of the season so the manager may see continuity as an important quality to preserve in team selection. Thus, my predicted team is:
Raya
White Saliba Gabriel Timber
Ødegaard Partey Rice
Saka Havertz Trossard
The Arsenal bench is a bit lighter after the loan of Vieira back to Porto and the permanent transfer of Nketiah to Palace. After the sale of ESR to Fulham a couple of weeks ago, the departure of Vieira provides an opportunity for the young Nwaneri to show what he can do in one or another of our attacking positions. As I began to write this earlier in the week I thought our bench could also be tipping in a weightier direction with Calafiori having played the last 20 minutes at left back against Villa, and Mikel Merino on his way from Real Sociedad to provide additional strength in our left midfield area. But on Friday Arteta announced that Merino hurt his shoulder in training and sustained a possible fracture, which makes it sound like our promising and combative new midfielder will begin his Arsenal career out injured for several weeks.
Before the transfer window closed on Friday night, Arsenal had sold Aaron Ramsdale to Southampton, and reached a deal for the loan of goalkeeper Neto from Bournemouth after the Gunners hit an impasse in talks with Espanyol over the possible signing of Joan Garcia as backup to David Raya. The Neto deal is a straight loan without either an option or obligation to buy and the player was set to undergo a medical in London on Friday. As of 6pm BST on transfer deadline Friday there were rumors of a possible loan signing of Raheem Sterling from Chelsea, but when you read this you will know more about any last minute signings than I can tell you about, so please feel free to comment in the drinks about our last minute business, and its impact on the look of our squad going forward.
It was a very busy week indeed between our Brighton preparations, the Champions League draw and transfer deadline business but now it’s time to reset our focus on playing some lovely football and subduing the Seagulls, so……
Come on You Gunners!
STOP PRESS
We won’t be facing little Billy Gilmour. He’s moved to Napoli in the last two hours of the window to create a Scottish ghetto alongside Scott McTominay.
A fine preview Bt8. Very well researched and full of detail. The Seagulls are a bit of an unknown quantity but we did despatch them twice last season . I think your team is spot on but the bench will be a bit shor5 of attacking options .
I suspect it might be Neto ( if registered in time ) , Kiwior, Calafiori, Zinchenko , Jorginho , Nwaneri , Lewis-Skelly , Martinelli and possibly Sagoe . We are a minim#list squad so Sterling will be welcome and we wish Merino a quick recovery . 2-0 to the Arsenal tomorrow I think
The suggestion is that Merino will miss 6-8 weeks ( interlulls do come in useful sometimes – up to 8 matches apparently. Very bad luck
Fine preview bt8
Very sad news re Merino, absolutely gutted for him.
Fingers crossed we can keep Partey fit till around November, although i assume Zinny and Timber can fill in the midfield if necessary.
As for Sterling, I do not understand our obsession with buying unwanted players from Chelsea, not one of whom has ever made a significant positive impact at the Club.
I do hope he is not Willian mark 2, who Arteta stubbornly persisted in picking regularly, even though he was clearly a total disaster of a signing.
Hopefully the paperwork is cocked up, and the computer malfunctions and we miss the deadline.
We have certainly cleared the subs bench in the Transfer window,
With Vieira, Eddie, ESR, Rambo, and Reiss Nelson all departing either permanently or on loan.
Hopefully all of them enjoy their new homes and get plenty of playing time, which they weren’t getting with us.
A big drop off in status for Rambo, but the others are going to Clubs which suit their level of skill, which unfortunately for them, is a couple of levels below the top table.
A detailed and informative preview, bt8, as per usual. Hard to know quite what to expect from Brighton, but 2-0 or better would be a good day for the team in red.
TTG@1: Charlie Sagoe Jr has gone on loan to Shrewsbury.
I would argue that Arteta learned a lesson with Willian and Luiz, and he smartly recruited Kai and Jorginho. Arteta also has a good relationship with Sterling. He was an excellent player with City. If we are getting him on loan with Chelsea paying half of his wages, then we got a good deal and now have a backup for Saka.
Thanks bt8, I am busy digesting your excellent preview and the transfer window with my morning coffee. I believe Neto didn’t sign in time to be in todays squad so it will be a youth team player.
It seems MA has answered C100’s pertinent question of Sterling or Nelson in favour of signing up Sterling and loaning out Nelson but nothing confirmed yet.
Bloody Edu!👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
That is all.
MCMBD
BBC listing Sterling and Neto as incoming and Nelson off to Fulham, all loans.
In fact, Sterling is on the .com so confirmed now subject to regulatory processes etc etc.
Best of luck to Reiss at Fulham, a new home from home for the goonerati it seems
The transfer window seemed particularly long this time round but Edu has proved himself capable of not only efficiently getting business done early but also doing the last minute tango. Too early to tell if it was a good, so-so or plain bad window but it was certainly a busy one.
Edu seems to be a happy bunny with the window.
https://www.arsenal.com/news/edu-reflects-summer-transfer-window
On the more immediate business of the Brighton game I guess the only question marks are, as bt8 has identified, on the left and possibly in the middle. I’d start Leo personally but MA does like an unchanged team at the start of the season if I remember correctly. Either way 3-0 to The Arsenal and no welcome back presents for Welbz will do nicely.
Clive
That Sterling deal is the biggest no-brainer in football . No loan fee and 40% of his wages for a hugely experienced, versatile forward player who worked superbly with Arteta. It is a deal with no downside for us,None at all. . We covered the cost with the sell on fee from Trusty and every goal he scores for us Chelsea have paid 60% of the cost for! Edu is to be congratulated for immaculate timing. Chelsea had nowhere to go, we were light in attack and we had the chance to acquire a vastly experienced forward for less than £1.5
million ? It’s the steal of the century . We’ve pulled Boehly’s trousers down and exposed what idiots they are at the Bus Stop.
It’s extraordinary business
Ned,
Thanks for the correction on Sagor . I mussed that . It will be a chance for a young tyro .
And lest we forget we also have Tierney still in our squad . We have a wonderful defensive unit !
TTG
The proof of the pudding will be on the pitch.
If he performs and scores goals, then I’m happy to concede i was wrong.
We are due a change of fortune with Chelsea rejects.
Let’s hope this is the outlier.
Cheers, bt8.
Note the departure of the rather excellent Pascal Gross from Brighton.
Hopefully Sterling will be more Jorginho than Willian.
I am a little skeptical but we’ll see, I have absolutely no idea if this opportunistic deal will be good or bad, but since we didn’t buy him, it won’t be absolutely terrible.
But for now we have an important match to win without him.
I got my figures wrong on Sterling . The cost over a season will be close to £5 million but it will still be relative chickenfeed in todays world of football
As for Chelsea rejects how would we grade Havertz and Jorginho ? We did have a terrible trail of them but these two have done well for us . I’d also see real value in Benayoun and Luiz who had some good moments interspersed with bad
Chelsea fans must be apoplectic at this deal . Shame !
Thanks for the preview bt8. We need to keep a close eye on Pedro who could well be someone we have interest in the future.
Hopefully another fast start is the order of the day to put early pressure on others.
Don’t know about others but I can’t relax until everyone else has lost and our invincible record is protected.
Going for another 2 nil win today.
I think this is a great deal from a footballing point of view and a great deal from a commercial point of view. Sterling is a top player who is 29 (30 in December) who is head and shoulders above Eddie or Reiss in a front three position. He knows and trusts Arteta and is a multiple winner. Like Havertz before, Chelsea took a very good player and turned him into a struggler (Maresca says he’s “the wrong sort of winger” wtf?). We now have a team full of achievers and winners, with some very good kids coming through (Nwaneri and Heaven to name but two). As TTG says, to get Sterling on a loan, with no loan fee, no obligation and buy, and Chelsea paying a large chunk of his wages is simply awesome business.
Well done all! Off to the Emirates in an hour to see us take on high flying Brighton. Good preview bt8. I’ll be along with a match report tomorrow.
Thanks for an excellent and informative preview bt8. I agree with your team and hope for a 2-0 win.
What a window! We’ve addressed the needs in our squad rather well and the icing on a very successful cake is the loan signing of Raheem Sterling. TTG nicely sums up how Edu has finessed the Chavs. Sterling will unquestionably prove himself still a better contributor than Reiss and Eddie. He will also have a rather large incentive to prove his quality. As a friend in another forum observed, “Chelsea’s manager and Boehly have been responsible for the biggest devaluation of Sterling since John Major!”
I’m off to the Hawthorns today hoping to see Aaron Ramsey play for Swansea.
Up the Gunners!
Bath @ 20. 😂😂
Enjoy the Hawthornes. Last time I went it was Aaron Ramsdale’s first game for us.
I’m rather tickled that the deal for Sterling is exactly the deal I said yesterday would be the conditions under which I would be happy to sign him: season long loan, no loan fee, Chavski pay 60% of his wages.
I hear what you’re saying about signings from the Chavs, Clive but I disagree. You’re right about Gallas and Willian being disastrous but there have been successes. John Hollins brought nous and class to a journeyman midfield. See what Saka has to say about David Luiz’s contribution to his own game and that of other young players and whilst he made a few errors, who doesn’t? Jorginho is like a throwback to that Hollins move and Havertz is an unqualified success.
I think Sterling’s commitment to the Arsenal will be radically different from Willian’s who seemed homesick during his brief spell at the Arsenal. When Willian reappeared at Fulham he showed what Arteta thought he was buying. Sterling will be determined to show the Chav manager that he got him wrong and may indeed be our ‘Cantona signing’ on the way to the PL trophy!
Cheers bt8. An enjoyable and hugely detailed preview.
Thank God the transfer window is done and the actual football can now be played without distractions. Well, for a weekend at least. Then we’ve got an interlull, which is like having a fine gourmet dinner then stopping for petrol on the way home and passing the last of the hot-held sausage rolls drying under lights in the service station, its greasy whiff not wholly inedible, but a poignant reminder that you’ve had your fill of quality grub and really don’t need a cheap, rather sad substitute between now and your next proper meal.
Anyhoo. Brighton at home should not be taken for granted. Tony Bloom is sharp as a tack, and if he’s gone for the youngest ever prem manager then i won’t be betting against him to be a success.
We should have too much for them today though. We’ve started the season with real focus. I’d expect that to continue. 2-0. Odegaard to score or assist for the first time this season.
Without a loan fee, and paying 100 grand of his weekly wages, we’ve got a fantastic deal for Sterling. He is a top player, he knows how to win, he knows how to be part of a winning squad, he knows what the boss will expect from him, he will be fired up to show Chelsea they got it wrong, and he’s a big upgrade on what we had last season.
And the outlay and risk is so low for us that it’s basically a free hit.
It’s top business, and it might translate to vital contributions on the pitch.
Welcome to The Arsenal, Raheem!
Incidentally with Reiss moving to the Cottage is there any truth they are being renamed Arsenal Old Boys? I see the logic in Bath and BtM getting regular tickets there now.
Good luck to Eddie and Reiss, Gooners through and through. Reiss, we’ll always have Bournemouth, a moment of ecstasy at the Emirates that is right up there with Arshavin v Barcelona.
Thanks bt8
Seagulls are generally a nuisance – noisy birds who try to steal your food and leave shit everywhere. Let’s shoo them away with a 3-0 showcase.
Whilst the financial outlay, as discussed here, is not hugely significant I’m ambivalent about Sterling. A disastrous time at Chavski followed an underwhelming finale at Citeh where he also seemed to fall out of favour from memory. If he gives Saka an occasional rest then all well and good but I don’t see him replacing anyone as first choice on an ongoing basis. All a bit meh to me.
UTA.
Safe trip wishes to C100 and Bath though I think Aaron Ramsey is playing for Cardiff.
A fine job, bt8, in a week when it’s almost impossible to keep up with team news, which you’ve done right to the last knockings of the window.
Brighton’s team looks very unfamiliar and despite many good reports of how they’re playing, we can hopefully take advantage of their settling in period and secure another three points before – ah, an Interlull.
What ludicrous timing. Clubs spend millions on their squads and then managers have no time with them due to two weeks international absences before they can play for their new clubs.
Many thanks to all for reading and making those kind comments in the drinks.
It looks like I got our starting team exactly right but as I wasn’t brave enough to predict the bench, here it is as announced by the BBC:
Subs: Setford, Martinelli, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Calafiori, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri, Salah.
If you want the most dramatic scenario, Raya gets injured and Setford comes on to make the game winning penalty save. But let’s not hope for it.
Brighton bring in Baleba in midfield in the spot occupied last week by Napoli-bound Billy Gilmour, and they made a change at GK. The whole Brighton team announced by the BBC:
Brighton starting XI: Verbruggem, Hinshelwood, Dunk, Van Hecke, Veltman, Baleba, Minteh, Minteh, Mitoma, Welbeck, Pedro.
Subs: Steele, Lamptey, Julio, Webster, Enciso, Rutter, Adingra, Ayari, Estupinan.
But it seems odd that there are two players called Minteh in their team (?)
Elsewhere the BBC have this as Brighton’s starting XI:
B. Verbruggen
J. Hinshelwood
L. Dunk (c), Captain
J. van Hecke
J. Veltman
C. Baleba
J. Milner
K. Mitoma
João Pedro
Y. Minteh
D. Welbeck
(So, James Milner is in midfield, not the twin of Minteh listed above @31.)
bt8. If chewing gum adverts are anything to go by then Brighton are making a smart choice with their doubleminty line-up.
In a move that’s somewhat flown under the radar, we’ve got Nelson off our bench and replaced him with Salah!
It will be very interesting and a breath of fresh air to see all these new faces on the bench for Arsenal. Have a great time watch time watching it everyone, and here’s hoping we see some great performances from the players today.
Heh, GSD. 😉
Minteh looked both pacy and meaty last week against the Red Mancs so it’s a good thing there aren’t two of them. I was wondering if he had a twin brother for a moment there.
Both our sun goalkeepers look like they’re in year 11 at school. They’re even shorter than Raya.
Come on Arsenal!
Milner crocked and coming off for young Ayari.
Pretty even so far.
Ode shoulda scored from Leo’s great cross
Could have had a couple of goals already, decent chances for Ode and Saka.
Saka roasting their full back who has been left one on one early on,
Get in Kai 1-0, we’d gone off the boil a bit after the first 20 minutes so handy goal that
Lino missed a blatant corner for Brighton hahaha
Always makes me happy for some reason.
1-0 half time and I will take that
The ref is insane
Going to be a tough 2nd half now
The ref is a pedant and has made the game all about himself
It was tough second half but we showed up as always these days when the going is tough.
I am still annoyed about the red and the ref shrugging his shoulders with his nothing I can do nonsense.
If you can’t win, at least don’t lose. The team dug in and managed that.
Not a lot of the rub of the green with the reffing decisions!
Thought the referee was a joke to be honest, so keen to book Arsenal players, where was the Brighton yellow card for kicking the ball away in the first half.
C100@25: Back in 1910, when Woolwich Arsenal was in an impecunious state and at risk of folding, there were discussions about moving the club to Craven Cottage. It is a complex tale of more than a potential ground share but less than a merger of the two clubs — perhaps one to tell in an interlull. In the event, as we know The Arsenal eventually decamped from Plumstead to N5 not SW6, and the rest, as they say, is history.
I looked on here expecting to see huge anger about that red card. You’re all OK with no it, right?
I agree with Ned about the value of not losing. That might be a huge point for us.
DG nails it in referencing the Brighton player who smashed the ball into the fans after it was off the pitch and, wasn’t given a yellow. With that decision the ref set a precedent of what he was going to allow. When he sent Rice off he was shrugging his shoulders as if to say “what choice do I have?” Where was that reaction when the Brighton guy hoofed the ball miles after play had been stopped?
On the second yellow: the ball is rolling, so Veltman can’t take a quick free kick. To be clear, Rice has not stopped him taking a free kick as the ball was not stationary.
Rice’s touch knocks the ball 50cm. We routinely see players kicking it further without sanction (rightly so, because its a nonsense to give them cards for that). There is no rule that says an opposing player cannot touch the ball from the moment a free kick is awarded and Rice has no way of knowing that his touch will be sanctioned when that the same type of touch goes unsanctioned multiple times per match. He can’t be blamed for doing something that players do all the time.
I don’t think the ref is correct under the rules (although we will hear all of the former refs in the world tell us he has got it exactly right) as I don’t think he realised the ball was still rolling.
He’s certainly decided to make the match about him, when – if correctly applying the rules was not on the table – a little common sense, or even simple consistency with his own decision earlier in the match would all have saved him from making a decision which drastically impacted the outcome.
Rice’s first yellow was a clear yellow card. No more, no less. I wonder if the Brighton manager’s vociferous reaction that it should have been a red (for which he was booked) was on the ref’s mind?
Anyway, there’s nothing to be done about it now. Gabi and Saliba got their positioning badly wrong to allow the Brighton goal. At a time when we just needed to shut up shop, that’s a poor mistake and entirely on us.
We also had an Odegaard chance to put Calafiori in one on one against the keeper but the skipper fluffed a simple pass (he was clearly carrying a knock). Then both Saka and Havertz had chances to score, and we had some positions we didn’t capitalise on.
So, whilst I think the ref was very poor and had a huge say in the match, we can’t do anything about that, and we can’t legislate for it happening today, or happening again later in the season. Reffing standards being what they are, I fully expect to see the season littered with this sort of crap and lots of teams getting shafted. We shall have to hope that other teams at the top of the table also receive the same kind of treatment, although I won’t be holding my breath.
What we can do is improve our performance, and we didn’t defend their goal well, nor did we make the most of the chances that came along after we were down to ten men. I’m sure that’s where the boss will be focusing on.
UTA!
Thanks for the clarification GSD. I’ll watch the match back and write my match report tomorrow.
I fully acknowledge that I don’t understand the hand ball rule, but whatever it is, there was an incident in the first half that I think should be a penalty to us every time.
White smashes a ball that is going into the far corner. Verbruggen can’t really see it as there are players in the way and it doesn’t look like he’s reacting. Certainly, the shot is away from him, on target, and has at least a good chance of being a goal. Having travelled a few metres in the air, it hits Dunk on his arm, which is away from his body.
This is the very definition of denying a goalscoring opportunity. He has illegally blocked a goalbound shot with his arm. If a keeper did that, it would be recorded as a save.
He doesn’t deliberately block it, so he shouldn’t get a yellow card. It would be a bit unlucky to concede a penalty like that, but it would be less unlucky than it would be to have a goalbound shot illegally blocked and then be told that there is some reason why this infraction is allowable on this occasion.
I’d fully expect an Arsenal player to have a penalty given against them for this offence, and rightly so.
If an accidental and slightly innocuous trip on the far edge of the box is worthy of a penalty, how is saving a goalbound shot with your arm not at least on the same level?
If the rule has been correctly applied, then it is rubbish. If it hasn’t, we’ll I wouldn’t expect any better. Frustrating either way.
The Premier League say Rice was sent off for delaying the restart. If Veltman had made contact with the ball then the free kick would have had to be retaken as the ball was not stationary. Rice has not delayed the restart. The decision is incorrect.
C100,
The thing that annoyed me is as I said @46 the whole shrug nothing I can do bollocks. That is just dishonest.
But GSD has summed up well @51, we were also guilty of not taking our chances.
Stupid officials, same idiots running VAR, idiotic rules – and no consistency in applying them. What could possibly go wrong.
Referee let all the Brighton fouls, play acting, and delaying go, punished Arsenal for every slightest touch, booked Raya for delaying, sent Rice off for nothing.
DepressedGooner already highlighted the inconsistency with the Rice incident.
As a group PGMOL cannot possibly be described as fit to control the biggest league in the world.
Between them, they are a weekly shambles that defy logic and absorb more post match discussion than the football ever does.
Ok C100 ? So most definitely not ok with it !
There’s not enough talk about the kick on Rice in the same movement after the bollocks quickly taken FK.
Xhaka got sent off for far less. In fact, when I saw the yellow and the red, having forgotten about the first yellow, I thought the ref was sending the Brighton player off.
And I agree with GSD@51. We should have still won that at least 1-0 or nicked a 2-1.
If you are going pedantically by the letter of the law, the ref should have shrugged his shoulders after the Dunk ‘handball’ to say, what can I do? and given a penalty. The ball unquestionably hits Dunk on the arm; he is a ways from White; and he deflected the ball from the goal. His arm wasn’t in a wildly unnatural position, but penalties will be given probably four or five times in ten in such cirumstances. To (many) others’ point, no consistency.
Again, no consistency regarding Rice’s second yellow. I wasn’t convinced at the time or even after watching the in-game replays that it was clear-cut that Rice committed an offence. Even if you accept that he did, why does the ref pick on that one incident out of plenty of far more egregious examples of delaying a free kick from being taken to issue a yellow card, especially when he knows it is a second yellow for the player?
The upshot is that Rice misses the trip to the wrong end of the Seven Sisters Road. If we appeal, there is a risk his suspension could be extended to the trip to City, too.
I read somewhere we can’t appeal as it is two yellows and not a straight red Ned.
Agree entirely with your other comments
And who came up with the utterly stupid decision that VAR can get involved with a red card award but cannot get involved with a second yellow card which results in a red card.
Honestly, the game is officiated by completely incompetent fools.
There is no organisation that flourishes without oversight, or at least a culture of accountability. PGMOL has neither.
We see the outcome every week and it does rather make one question the point of investing oneself in a competition whose rules are enforced so arbitrarily and inconsistently (whilst the PGMOL can be relied upon to tell us they have correctly applied the rules)
I haven’t watched Formula One since Hamilton had his title stolen through an incorrect application of the rules in the last two laps of the last race of the season.
It just seems mental to invest myself in a sport where the rules can be arbitrarily changed at any moment.
Football operates in the same arena these days. I’ve spent years bemoaning the standards, but they are way beyond the occasional howler and now have a huge impact on the validity of the competition.
Never mind individual referees; no individual is going to flourish in the current system.
Until the system is changed to allow healthy accountability, transparency and trust, we are just going to get the same level of inconsistency, obfuscation and denial.
No one is winning at the moment. No-one comes out on top. Not referees, not players, or club staff, or fans, or the PL or the FA or any other stakeholder you care to mention.
Why is there so little appetite to introduce a system that makes things better for everyone?
Mike Dean says it was made clear to teams before the season that delaying a restart, for example, by kicking a ball away, would result in a booking. Fair enough, but across 27 PL games so far this season, there have been 94 yellows given for fouls, 10 for dissent, 6 given to managers, 4 for reasons that have not been recorded for some reason, 3 for diving and 1 for ‘shooting ball’ (presumably kicking the ball in the net after the whistle had gone, rather than whipping out a Glock to deflate the ball). There have also been two straight reds. Yet, until Rice’s today, only one yellow card had been given for time wasting, the delaying-a-restart offence. You cannot seriously tell me that across 27 PL games — around 2,500 minutes of football — there were only two instances of players delaying a restart. There is just no consistency because, as GSD says, there is no accountability.
OM@59: You are right about the non-appealability of a red resulting from two yellows. My bad. Only exception is in cases of mistaken identity.
We have been assigned to travel to Italy in CL match day one, so that sentence in paragraph 2 of the preview can now be read as: “… the international break which covers the entire first half of next month until we resume with away games at Sp**s and C115y on 15 and 22 September, either side of Champions League match day one in midweek against Atalanta in Bergamo.”
A busy week to restart our season.
I’ve not seen the game yet or read the Drinks though I have heard about the nonsense second yellow for Rice. Why are Arsenal players always the ones made an example of? Diabolical.
Great day out at the Hawthorns with superb hospitality and a warm welcome from all the staff in the suite. My mate has a reserved parking spot 50 Yards from the entrance to the stand for £200 for the season on top of his season ticket and the facility to bring a guest to partake in the hospitality. A very impressive operation. It was a hard fought game of two halves with a nice goal winning it for the Baggies who really should have been 3 up at half time but had to defend for their lives throughout the second half.
Kyle Barkley, once of the Arsenal, was team captain and a rock in their defence. No sign of Aaron Ramsey because as OM notes above, he plays for Cardiff. I really should try harder but all Welsh teams look and sound the same to me.
My confidence I would be in Italy for the Atalanta game was misplaced. The first game is just before I arrive, a cruel piece of scheduling but I hadn’t realized the Milan game is away too.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>